Gabriel Richard Makes Name, Earns Renown
By
Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
October 22, 2015
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
ANN ARBOR – It was early in the volleyball season when Ann Arbor Father Gabriel Richard went to the Novi Invitational as the only Class B team in a talent-rich tournament full of highly-ranked Class A teams.
“We really hadn’t made a name for ourselves yet,” Fighting Irish junior setter Emma Nowak said, “and I don’t think any of us expected to win it because we knew of the talent on the other teams that were there.”
Gabriel Richard pulled off the shocker, winning all six matches without losing a set. Among the victims was host Novi, the top-ranked team in Class A then and also in the latest ranking.
Gabriel Richard had made a name for itself: Novi tournament champion. The Fighting Irish added more names as the season progressed: No. 1-ranked team in Class B and only undefeated team remaining in the state.
However, at 33-0, the name that everyone at Gabriel Richard wants is Class B champion, something the Fighting Irish have not done in volleyball since winning the 1991 Class D title. But nobody expects it to be easy.
“I think there are a lot of expectations of us to go to states and win, and I would be upset if we didn’t get that far,” senior middle blocker Sydney Burton said, “but I would still be happy that we got this far without losing after beating some of the best Class A schools.”
Turning point
Gabriel Richard has not been a perennial power statewide in volleyball until recently. The Fighting Irish took a huge step forward last year when it won its first Class B Regional title since 1994, and the fashion in which they did it made it all the more impressive.
In the Regional Semifinal, Gabriel Richard defeated New Boston Huron, which had eliminated the Fighting Irish rather easily at the Novi Invitational two months earlier. Then, Gabriel Richard had to face Chelsea, which had easily defeated the Fighting Irish three times earlier in the season.
The run ended in the MHSAA Quarterfinals, but the performance in the Regional certainly was a turning point for the program.
“I would say the Regional was a key,” Gabriel Richard coach Mayssa Bazzi said. “It was a tremendous confidence-builder, but not having been to the state tournament before, last year the girls seemed a little shell-shocked.
“I don’t think we performed, but I do think the Regional definitely was a kick start to this year.”
Something to build on
Although Gabriel Richard had its best season since 1994 last year, Bazzi felt the team had underachieved.
“I believed we had this talent last year,” she said. “We saw the level of talent on the team, and we felt at times they were underachieving.
“It’s just a matter of this year we have the confidence to make it happen.”
The only real way to gain confidence is by being successful, and everything came together at Novi on Sept. 12. Nineteen Class A teams and one Class B team does not offer much hope for the lone Class B competitor.
“It was a tournament we went into believing we would do well,” Bazzi said. “This was our third year going, and every year we did a little better. We made it to the Gold playoffs every year but got knocked out in the first round, and this year something happened to the girls in the playoffs.”
In pool play, Gabriel Richard defeated Livonia Stevenson, Clarkston and Canton in straight sets, earning a match with strong Birmingham Seaholm in the quarterfinals. The Fighting Irish advanced with a 25-14, 26-24-victory.
“None of us expected to win it, but once we won our three pool play games and we beat Seaholm in our first bracket-play game, we had belief that we could win,” Nowak said.
That set up a match with top-ranked Novi, the Class A runner-up in 2014, and Gabriel Richard had little trouble in a 25-16, 25-15 victory. Lake Orion, another highly-ranked team, was next in the championship match, and the Fighting Irish scored a 25-22, 25-21 victory.
At that point, the season changed dramatically.
“I did not think that we were going to win because they were all Class A schools, and we’re a Class B school,” senior defensive specialist Sarah Brooks said. “But once we won, I was like, ‘This team is going to go really far together.’ ”
Senior leadership
The recipe for success – at least according to some of the players – is almost as simple as they have made the season appear. A close, tight team with solid senior leadership has provided an atmosphere for the players to realize their potential.
“We all come from different backgrounds,” senior libero Rachel Dunlavy said. “My freshmen and sophomore year, I felt like the varsity team had a lot of cliques on the team – the team was really divided – and last year and this year we’ve had a lot of team unity, and I think that’s because some of the captains we’ve had have tried to bring that together.”
Senior Emily Tanski, the team’s top performer and one of 10 finalists for Miss Volleyball in Michigan, had similar feelings.
“Our closeness is the key,” she said. “We’re able to take each other’s constructive criticism, and also, in the halls in school we’re all like, ‘This is our family,’ and we don’t leave people out.
“The new sophomores on the team are part of us now, and we’re shaping them to be how we want them to be when the seniors are gone.”
Tanski is one of three Gabriel Richard players headed east to play on the collegiate level. She has agreed to play at the University of New Hampshire, while Burton is headed for Northwest Missouri State and Dunlavy is bound for Stonehill College in Massachusetts.
Tanski is a three-time Class B all-state selection while at Gabriel Richard, making first-team last year after being a third-team selection as a sophomore and earning honorable mention as a freshman.
“She is easily our best all-around player,” Bazzi said. “She brings the experience of having played at a high level for a long time. I know the girls look at her as a leader, and she has a calming effect on the team.
“As long as we get that great pass, and Emily gets set up, she is hitting close to .400 this season.”
Missing piece
Last year, Gabriel Richard had a pressing issue: It did not have a setter in place to take over for its setter who had graduated in 2014. So Bazzi turned to Nowak, who had never been a setter during her short playing career.
It was a gamble in more ways than one.
“We needed somebody desperately,” Bazzi said. “I just looked at the girls who were in the program and felt she was one of our best athletes, and I said, ‘You either learn to set and you will get playing time, or you can continue to fight for a hitting position, and you might find yourself on the bench a lot.’
“She’s a kid who wants to be on the court and will be upset if she’s not on the court, but there was a little bit of resistance.”
Nowak said the resistance was more a concern that she would not be able to do the job effectively.
“My initial reaction was, ‘I don’t know how I will do at this position but the team needs a setter and I want to play, so if the team needs a setter, I’ll be the setter,’ ” Nowak said.
And now, she is successful and happy as the team setter.
“It’s really nice to have a part in every play in the game,” she said. “I love it.”
And it helps to have players like Tanski and junior Jurnee Tipton – a potential Miss Volleyball nominee in 2016, according to Bazzi – ready to turn those sets into kills.
“It’s amazing,” Nowak said. “Even if I struggle some games with my sets, they’re just all so talented that they make up for it. They’re awesome.”
Targeted team
Being the lone undefeated team in the state comes with some challenges. One of them is facing the other team’s “A” game every night. It is something very real for the Fighting Irish and something they had not experienced in previous seasons.
“At the Novi tournament, I felt like a lot of teams didn’t expect us to come out that strong, so we kind of took them by surprise,” Burton said.
That all changed last weekend in the strong Beast of the East tournament, which Gabriel Richard won by again beating some of the top Class A teams in the state.
“At Beast of the East, I felt like we had a big target on our back,” Burton said.
The Beast of the East was more grueling than Novi as the Fighting Irish had to play 17 sets over a 12-hour span. On the way to winning the championship, the Fighting Irish knocked off rated teams like Birmingham Seaholm, Lake Orion and Grand Rapids Christian. And, unlike the Novi tournament, Gabriel Richard had to rally to win some matches after losing the first set in a best-of-three.
Bazzi said those tough matches will prove beneficial to her team down the road.
“It was more difficult than Novi, but the girls got it done,” she said. “We had some teams that really pushed us, and we needed it. We played three teams where we dropped the first set, and tournaments it’s best of three. Our team, maybe for the fourth time this season, came back from a major deficit to win.
“I believe these tight matches will give us what we need to help us make it to where we should.”
In the championship match against Grand Rapids Christian, the Fighting Irish squeezed out a pair of two-point victories to win the sets.
“We had played a lot of matches, and it was late,” Tanski said. “I think how we played in that last game, strong and hard, and how we continued to play that way was something I will remember.
“That final match was an emotional battle, and that will stick with me.”
Wednesday night, Gabriel Richard earned a spot in the championship match of the Detroit Catholic High School League. The Fighting Irish will play Pontiac Notre Dame Prep on Monday at Madonna University.
It is a chance to add another name to the growing list.
“I think we have the total package,” Bazzi said. “Our defense is great, but I would not say we have the best defense in the state. Our setter works her tail off, but she’s not the best setter. I would say she’s in the top 10 setters in the state.
“We have hitters who are great, Emily and Jurnee. They are our main go-to hitters, but we have other girls in our front line who help take the pressure off of them.”
Bazzi and her assistant coach, Ashley Williams, said as great as this season has been, working with the players has been even greater. And they know something about team togetherness: They were teammates while playing at Wayne State University more than 10 years ago.
“The wins are awesome, but they’re just great girls,” Bazzi said. “They’re wholesome, smart, loving, great, great kids, great teammates, very respectful. They have fun on the court. The girls are good girls.”
They also are unbeaten girls. Top-ranked girls. Tournament championship girls.
Yes, they certainly have made names for themselves. And they are hoping to add the biggest one of all: Class B state championship girls.
Chip Mundy served as sports editor at the Brooklyn Exponent and Albion Recorder from 1980-86, and then as a reporter and later copy editor at the Jackson Citizen-Patriot from 1986-2011. He also co-authored Michigan Sports Trivia. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard volleyball players celebrate during a match earlier this season. (Middle) Sydney Burton (11) and Jurnee Tipton put up a block against Farmington Hills Mercy. (Middle below) Emily Tanski drives a kill past two Mercy blockers. (Below) Gabriel Richard's varsity line-up. (Photos and video below courtesy of Gabriel Richard volleyball.)
Three Rivers Follows Past Standout to League Title, with More Historic Hopes
By
Scott Hassinger
Special for MHSAA.com
October 31, 2023
THREE RIVERS – Megan Jergens was a sophomore outside hitter when Three Rivers won its last Wolverine Conference volleyball title in 2013.
Ten years later, Jergens has the Wildcats sitting back on top of the league standings again as she winds down her first season as head coach.
Three Rivers (40-9-2) reclaimed the long-awaited honor with a 6-1 record sharing the crown with Edwardsburg and Otsego.
The latest championship, along with a couple of individuals on the team who have sketched their name into the MHSAA record book, has created a ton of excitement entering this week's Division 2 District tournament at Paw Paw.
Three Rivers, No. 8 in the final Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association poll, won its District-opening match Monday defeating Paw Paw 25-8, 25-20, 25-3. The Wildcats are scheduled to face Dowagiac in a District semifinal match at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Jergens, Three Rivers' junior varsity mentor the last four seasons, was hired in April to replace former coach Lauren Cholometes.
A solid summer of conditioning and attendance at a couple of camps helped put the building blocks in place for a successful season in Three Rivers.
Expectations have been high with six returning seniors and a couple of underclassmen who play key roles.
Jergens’ biggest concerns initially when she took the reins of the program were how to get a large group of returning seniors the best experience possible while being highly competitive.
"We have a lot of potential with this group and many phenomenal athletes. The main question was how can we take full advantage of this and put it to good use," Jergens said.
Three Rivers' preseason goals were similar to those at all schools with conference, District, Regional and state title hopes.
"Those are everybody's goals, but you have to set little ones to accomplish the bigger ones. It just doesn't happen overnight," Jergens said. “Here at Three Rivers, we are blessed to have a phenomenal weight room that's open four days during the summer. Except for our dead periods, all of our girls were in there lifting every day. There was a big emphasis on our summer workouts. They understand that anything we accomplish has to be earned; it's not just given to them.”
Three Rivers attended the Aquinas Summer Slam which features some of the state's elite teams. The Wildcats also spent a few days at the Ferris State University Camp.
"Playing in those summer scrimmages really helped prepare us for our early-season matches. It allowed us to get off to a much quicker start against some of the better teams in our league," Jergens said.
Besides a rigorous league schedule, Three Rivers competed against several Division 1 schools in weekend tournaments at Gull Lake, the Cereal City Classic in Battle Creek and the Williamston Tournament, where the Wildcats finished first.
"Those kind of tournaments make us work hard for every point, but in the long run it makes us a much better team," Jergens added. “Our practices are extremely competitive because of the personnel we have on this team. Our bench players would be starters at a lot of other schools. We have 14 players on the roster because their attitudes have been really positive. These girls really embrace their individual roles."
Three Rivers has three seniors who have started on varsity since their sophomore season. They are senior middle hitter Jenna Southland, along with right-side hitter Allie McGlothlen and defensive specialist Aliza Munro.
Southland, a 6-foot-2 returning third-team all-stater, leads Three Rivers in kills with 619, a .356 hitting percentage, 99 blocks, 223 digs and 59 aces. This year she has made MHSAA record books lists with 30 kills in a single match, along with most kills in a season (619) and career kills (1,438). She has committed to play at the Division II level at Hillsdale College next fall.
"Our attacking is solid because we have strong hitters all around who know where to place the ball. I feel like our determination has been a big factor as well," Southland said. "I've improved a great deal on my court vision, knowing where my blockers are and talking to the other hitters."
McGlothlen also has been a consistent performer for Three Rivers at right-side hitter. She has 223 kills, 326 digs, 35 aces and 64 blocks.
"Both Jenna and Allie play all-around for us and are powerhouse hitters. We really look to both of them for a lot of contributions," Jergens said. "All of our senior class are strong leaders on and off the court. That kind of leadership can't be taught, and I'm really thankful for that."
McGlothlen also has raised some interest from college coaches with her ability.
"Winning conference and raising that banner was really exciting and special. We worked very hard to get there," McGlothlen said. "We know we always have to be aggressive at the net even with how good our defense is."
Munro, the Wildcats' No. 1 libero, has 526 digs to go with 25 aces.
"Aliza runs our defense. She's a phenomenal serve-receive passer who keeps us steady in the back row," Jergens said.
Munro will continue her playing career the next four years for Spring Arbor University, an NAIA school.
"We never give up on any balls, and our back row communicates very well. We can be down a couple sets, regroup and come back and win," Munro said.
Lending additional power at the net is senior middle/right-side hitter Arabella Mangold. She has 258 kills, a .240 hitting percentage, 302 digs, 64 blocks and 28 aces.
"Arabella has been a real positive influence on our team. We switched her to middle hitter this year, and I couldn't ask for a better person than her in that role," Jergens said.
Sophomore Miley Southland, Jenna's younger sister, has run the offense to near perfection from her setter's spot as a second-year starter. She has 1,179 assists to go with 78 kills, 33 blocks and 46 aces. She registered an MHSAA record 46 assists in a match against Sturgis, then later surpassed that with 56 against Otsego.
Three Rivers runs a fast-paced offense with various options of attack.
"We run multiple plays that Miley can choose from, and she does a nice job of setting up our offense," Jergens said.
The Southlands also happen to be the younger sisters of Three Rivers' head coach.
"Coaching them (Jenna and Miley) is a special dynamic that I'm very thankful for. I am eight and 10 years older than them so we've never been super close, but this has allowed us to have that sister dynamic back,” Jergens said. “They respect me as a coach, so it doesn't really feel like I'm out there coaching my sisters. I look at it as a privilege, and I wouldn't trade that experience for anything.”
Jenna Southland is thankful for the chance to bond with her older sister.
"I love playing for Megan. She pushes me and knows what I need as a player, and I know I can trust her," Jenna Southland said.
Miley is equally ecstatic about playing for her oldest sister.
"It's a lot of fun playing for my older sister. We have real good chemistry, and she knows when to push me and when to back off a little," Miley Southland said. "I feel encouraged by my teammates, and I've really improved on my connection with the hitters. I see the court much better and know where to set the ball."
Seniors Lanie Glass and Maddie O'Hara have played significant roles as well for Three Rivers.
Glass has 99 kills, 37 aces, 114 digs and 24 blocks at outside hitter, while O'Hara sports totals of 114 kills, 74 digs and 22 blocks at left-outside hitter.
Jergens has coached most of her players on her varsity roster, since they played for her at the JV level or on her club teams.
"These girls have had me as a coach for a long time. That's made the coaching transition much easier for them since I took over," Jergens said. “I feel like we have a special relationship because they know me inside and out and what my expectations of them are. There is a mutual respect between us.”
Three Rivers' league title was just the third in school history in volleyball, joining those won in 2012 and 2013.
Should Three Rivers win its District, the Wildcats would get a possible rematch with Otsego in the Regional. Otsego edged Three Rivers in the final league match 25-20, 25-23, 25-23, 25-16, 20-18.
Three Rivers’ longest postseason run in this sport came in 2021, when the Wildcats reached the Regional Final before falling to Niles.
"Winning league has been a full-circle moment for us because volleyball isn't a sport that Three Rivers has necessarily been a powerhouse in. We have a standout conference where we have multiple teams that play at a high level," Jergens said.
“This team is really special, and they know they are special. I'm really excited to see what we can do in Districts.”
Scott Hassinger is a contributing sportswriter for Leader Publications and previously served as the sports editor for the Three Rivers Commercial-News from 1994-2022. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Berrien, Cass, St. Joseph and Branch counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Seniors Jenna Southland (12) and Madelyn O'Hara combine at the net to block a kill attempt by a South Haven player. (Middle) Senior Allie McGlothlen is escorted by her parents Jon and Kristine McGlothlen on Parent's Night at Three Rivers prior to that match. (Below) Three Rivers varsity volleyball players and their coaches celebrate their first Wolverine Conference title since 2013 after a recent match at Otsego. (Top and middle photo by Scott Hassinger. Below photo courtesy of Three Rivers’ athletic department.)