Unexpected Ubly Reaches Season Finale
June 14, 2013
By Bill Khan
Special to Second Half
BATTLE CREEK — Nobody outside of Ubly expected the Bearcats to be playing for the MHSAA Division 4 softball championship.
Even some within the inner circle were skeptical.
"It's crazy and unbelievable," senior catcher Alyssa Briolat said following an 8-6 victory over Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett in a Semifinal on Friday at Bailey Park. "I would never have thought this would happen. It's just so surreal. I'm on cloud nine and my feet haven't touched the ground yet since we've been here. Now that we're going to the Final, we just need to keep it up and play our game."
It's understandable that Ubly's trip to the Final has caught everyone by surprise. The Bearcats (27-6) had never won a Regional championship until this season and were unranked. Even as they marched all the way to Battle Creek, they did so without facing a team that even merited honorable mention in the final state rankings.
But against a fourth-ranked Liggett team that allowed two runs or fewer in 26 of its 31 games, Ubly became the first team this season to put up eight runs against the Knights (27-5).
"At the beginning of the season, regionals was our goal," Ubly coach Courtney Dekoski said. "Last year we lost in the first round of regionals, so our goal was to improve there. Look where we are."
The Bearcats are playing on the final day of the season against top-ranked Kalamazoo Christian at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Bailey Park. After toppling the fourth-ranked team in the state, the Bearcats won't be intimidated against a program that owns six MHSAA titles.
"I'm psyched," Dekoski said. "There's no stopping us now with the momentum we have and the girls we have. It's anybody's game."
The key to Ubly's victory was a four-run third inning that featured a two-run homer by Briolat.
"I definitely wasn't trying for a home run," Briolat said. "I just wanted to get a hit. I struggled a little in the quarterfinal and I struck out my first at bat. I just wanted to make some contact. Right from the bat, it felt good."
The home run gave Ubly a 4-1 lead. Liggett scored twice in the bottom of the third inning to make it 4-3, but the Knights could never catch up. A three-run fifth got Liggett within 7-6, but Ubly got breathing room when Maria Guza led off the seventh with a home run.
Julia DeRoo gave Liggett a chance by leading off the seventh with a single, but she was picked off when pitcher Michela Guza speared a line drive by Emily Kanakry and threw to first base to complete a rally-killing double play.
"I was paying attention and knew if I caught it, I saw her off the base and we might have a double play," Guza said.
Maria Guza and Briolat drove in three runs each for Ubly.
Kalamazoo Christian 2, Rogers City 0
Senior Stephanie VanderLugt pitched a two-hit shutout for Kalamazoo Christian. She struck out nine and allowed only one run.
Rogers City's only significant threat came in the top of the seventh inning, when it put runners on first and second with one out. VanderLugt forced two popups to second base to end the game.
"I was a little nervous, because they could win with a home run, and I knew they had quite a few home runs over the whole year," VanderLugt said. "I was just trying to focus on my game, rather than what their batters had."
VanderLugt got all the support she would need when freshman Kara Gjeltema hit a solo homer to right field with one out in the fourth inning. The Comets got an insurance run when Carly Vandenberg led off the fifth with a double and scored on an error.
Kalamazoo Christian has won eight straight games, outscoring its competition 67-8, since getting swept 11-0, 15-5 late in the season by Division 1 powerhouse Mattawan.
"We don't see a Division 4 team until we get to this," Kalamazoo Christian coach Karla Reno said. "Locally, we've got Portage Central, Portage Northern, Mattawan, Coloma, Wayland, who are really top teams. All of the KVA teams are bigger schools than us. It helps prepare us tremendously. You can never play good teams too much. It helps bring our level of play up."
Rogers City (33-7) was in the semifinals for the first time since 2004, scoring 77 runs in six postseason games before getting blanked.
"We ran into a really good pitcher today," Rogers City coach Karl Grambau said. "We just couldn't come up with the big hit. We hit the ball all year. We're a great hitting team. You've got to give the Kalamazoo Christian pitcher a lot of credit."
Kalamazoo Christian is in the MHSAA Final for the ninth time, but the first time since 2002. The Comets have won the last six times they've reached the title game.
Click for full box scores.
PHOTOS: (Top) Ubly first baseman Lindsey Briolat prepares to scoop up a grounder during Friday's Semifinal win over University Liggett. (Middle) Kalamazoo Christian pitcher Stephanie VanderLugt delivers during her shutout of Rogers City. (Click to see more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
Jokela Caps LL-H Career As 3-Sport Star, Among Track's Most Accomplished Greats
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
June 26, 2025
ESCANABA — It would nearly be an understatement to say Emily Jokela has enjoyed a stellar high school athletic career.
The recent Lake Linden-Hubbell graduate earned a dozen victories at the Upper Peninsula Division 3 Track & Field Finals during her prep career, winning the 400-meter dash and 300 hurdles four times apiece, taking the 100 dash three times, adding a 200 title as a sophomore and 100 hurdles championship this spring.
Jokela also owns the all-time U.P. Finals record in the 300s at 44.8 seconds and the UPD3 record in the 400 (58.61) set a year ago – with school records in those events as well.
“I started running in fifth grade and fell in love with hurdling,” she said. “All my events were close together. I do weight training four times a week and sometimes go to the Michigan Tech track to get a break from our asphalt surface. The asphalt track is harder on the legs. It’s nice to get on a rubberized track.”
She concluded her prep basketball career here June 12 by leading the West All-Stars past the East, 50-41, at the 39th Annual Upper Peninsula All-Star Basketball Game.
Jokela, who scored 18 points in her final prep hoops appearance at Bay College, was selected Most Valuable Player. She finished her Lake Linden-Hubbell basketball career with a school-record 2,010 points, leading the Lakes through a 17-7 season this winter and earning an all-U.P. Division 4 first-team honor.
Jokela did double-duty this spring, also as a pitcher in softball. Lake Linden-Hubbell went undefeated in the Copper Mountain Conference (10-0) and finished 28-7 overall after dropping a 2-0 decision to Gogebic (Bessemer/Wakefield-Marenisco’s cooperative team) in their Division 4 Regional Final.
“I started playing basketball and softball at a young age,” she said. “I made some of my best friends in basketball. I’m going to miss all the girls I played with for four years. I’m so proud of how far we went in softball. I’m also very happy with how basketball went and quite happy with the way our track & field season went.”
LL-H brought home the Division 3 runner-up trophy from the U.P. Track & Field Finals at Kingsford by scoring 76 points, just eight fewer than Newberry. The Lakes were crowned U.P. champions last season and shared the title with Stephenson in 2023. Jokela was four-time all-state selection and three-time CMC MVP, and scored more than 1,000 points during her career. As a junior she won the 100, 200, 400 and 300 hurdles at the UPD3 championship meet and remains one of only seven girls to win four individuals events at a Finals.
On the basketball court, she was a two-time conference MVP and four-time member of the CMC’s elite team, and selected twice to The Associated Press, Basketball Coaches Association and Detroit Free Press all-state teams. In softball, Jokela was a two-time conference MVP and named CMC Pitcher of the Year.
Jokela earned another high honor in late May, being named her school’s Outstanding Female Athlete. She is bound for Grand Valley State University, where she’ll become a member of the women’s track & field team.
“I met my roommates, and they seem nice,” Jokela said. “It will be a lot more intense in college. I’m really going to have to work hard for everything. I need to work on my endurance. It was a challenge balancing track with softball, but I like being busy.”
Jokela also was a two-time all-state academic selection and a National Honor Society member. After carrying a 3.79 grade point average in high school, she plans to major in health science at Grand Valley.
John Vrancic has covered high school sports in the Upper Peninsula since joining the Escanaba Daily Press staff in 1985. He is known most prominently across the peninsula for his extensive coverage of cross country and track & field that frequently appears in newspapers from the Wisconsin border to Lake Huron. He received the James Trethewey Award for Distinguished Service in 2015 from the Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.
PHOTO Lake Linden-Hubbell’s Emily Jokela (5) leaps the final hurdle on the way to an impressive win in the 300 at last month’s Upper Peninsula Division 3 Finals in Kingsford. (Photo by Cara Kamps.)