GR Christian Runs Finals Win Streak to 3
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
January 16, 2021
BATTLE CREEK – Grand Rapids Christian volleyball coach Tiffannie Gates said she knew Lake Odessa Lakewood wanted another crack at her team in this season’s Division 2 Final.
Lakewood earned that opportunity, but it was the Eagles who walked out of Kellogg Arena as champions.
Grand Rapids Christian defeated Lakewood 25-20, 25-20, 25-19 Saturday to claim its third-straight Finals title.
“I think each year has had its own special meaning to me as a coach with these championships,” Gates said. “This year, with this group of seniors, has a very special place in my heart – they all do – but they’ve been here, most of them, from Day 1 as freshmen. Just to see their determination to social distance and not go to parties and make sure they could get to this day, you don’t see that very often from kids this age. It really moved me.
“Our message today in the locker room was love each other above all else, and if we do that, we’re going to be fine.”
It’s the third title in as many Finals trips for the Grand Rapids Christian program – and second straight against Lakewood – and after the match, the players were sporting shirts that had been made up for the occasion, which read, “Our tweets 3-peat.”
“I can’t even really put it into words right now, I don’t think,” Grand Rapids Christian senior Lauren Peal said. “It’s still kind of setting in that that just happened, if I’m being honest. It’s just an overwhelming feeling of the love from our teammates every single year, and the support that we have for each other. How we go into this game is 100 percent loving on each other and being there for each other the whole entire time. That whole entire game, we were playing for each other. I think that over any other feeling is what comes out of this, the overwhelming feeling of love you have during this game.”
Lakewood coach Cameron Rowland said it was Grand Rapids Christian’s multi-dimensional attack that gave his team problems, specifically the contributions from middle hitters Stephanie Stewart and Kate Breems, who had nine and four kills, respectively.
Much of the credit for that goes to setter Alyssa DeVries, who had 43 assists while spreading the ball around the court.
“I think she had the best match of her season tonight,” Gates said. “She had big shoes to fill, and she came in and she worked her butt off. We did extra practice with her every day of the regular season. She transformed into a completely different player from the first day until today. I am extremely proud of her.”
Addie VanderWeide led the Eagles’ attack with 19 kills, while Evie Doezema had 16. Peal added 17 digs, while VanderWeide had 11.
It was VanderWeide and Doezema that Rowland said he was expecting to have to deal with, and while they had strong matches, the rest of the Eagles’ attack was enough to get his team off rhythm.
“When we got the ball to the net to (Lakewood setter Skylar Bump), they served really, really well so we were scrambling a little more than we were used to,” Rowland said. “We’ve been the team that’s been in system all year, and they kind of took that away from us with their ability to do what they did from the service line.”
Aubrey O’Gorman led Lakewood with 17 kills, while Maradith O’Gorman added eight kills and 15 digs. Bump had 23 assists and 14 digs, and Carley Piercefield had 14 digs.
“I’m just so incredibly honored to play in a program that is able to get to this point every single year, year after year,” Aubrey O’Gorman said. “It has been established that we will be here in November every single year – or January – and I’m just so incredibly honored to be a part of that.”
PHOTOS: (Top) A pair of Lakewood blockers defend against a Grand Rapids Christian kill attempt Saturday night at Kellogg Arena. (Middle) Maradith O’Gorman keeps a ball in play for the Vikings. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
Fowler Seniors Make Childhood Dream Come True with 1st Finals Championship
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 22, 2025
BATTLE CREEK – The Fowler volleyball team called its shot in January, naming its group chat “State Champs.”
But the Class of 2026 has believed that was the endgame for much longer than that.
Behind the leadership of nine seniors, they made it happen Saturday, as the Eagles claimed the school’s first volleyball Finals title, sweeping Mendon 30-28, 25-19, 25-22 in the Division 4 championship match at Kellogg Arena.
“I think we’ve known the whole time that if we stick with it and we push each other, that we could do good things,” senior middle hitter Josie Simon said. “I think especially last year, we wanted to do it for those seniors, and that hurt us. We knew during that Regional Final game that it was the big game, so when we lost we knew we had to come in this year and we were ready to go. We knew what we were chasing.”
Saturday’s Finals appearance was just the second in school history for Fowler, and first since 2017. That year, Simon and her classmates were fourth graders, and several of them were at Kellogg Arena watching.
The following year, their own journey began.
“I’m super thrilled for them, and they literally have been talking about this since they were in the fifth grade when they started playing volleyball,” Fowler coach Patty Feldpausch said. “To want something so bad and know you have to stay focused, and know that mistakes don’t matter because the next ball matters, that’s a big deal. We don’t have our individual names on the back of their warm-up shirts. Their name is not on there because that’s not important. It’s what we’re doing together, that’s what’s important. They believed it, and that’s why we’re sitting at this table being the champions.”
While they’d rather not wait another eight years, the Eagles know they could have sparked that same drive and belief in a group of girls watching Saturday.
“Making history and showing little kids that it’s possible, like it’s hard, but we did it and they can do it,” senior Myah Pohl said. “For the kids that we waved at, and they supported us – they can do it, too.”
Those kids witnessed an incredible team effort that led to a title, as the Eagles had 10 players record a dig, and five add at least seven kills to the attack.
At the heart of that were a trio of seniors, as Paige Thelen had 21 kills, Rachel Wirth had 21 digs and Neelah O’Rourke had 48 assists.
Fittingly, that trio combined for the final dig, assist and kill of the game, as Thelen pounded home an O’Rourke set, which came off a Wirth pass, for match point.
O’Rourke’s 48 assists are the most in a three-set Finals match since the move to divisions in 2018.
“She’s the only player I hugged – we got rushed around,” Feldpausch said with a laugh. “She just did a great job today. Our defense was giving her good balls to feed and our hitters did a great job against their big block. Neelah just kept her composure. She was amazing, she did great.”
Skylar Fowler was a big part of that attack as well, recording 10 kills, while Pohl had nine, Elizabeth Wirth had eight and Simon had seven. Selena Stump had 13 digs for the Eagles (36-8-2), with O’Rourke adding 12 and Thelen 11.
Most of the drama in the match came during the first set, as it took 30 points to settle it. While each point was tense, the final point featured a long back and forth that ended with a block from Simon and Stump.
“It’s tough to lose an opening set like that,” Mendon coach Kenneth Herbert said. “We’ve said it all season long, that we’re never out of a match. Even though we lost that first set, we felt from that moment we could still battle. And even to the last point, I felt that we were still battling. That’s all I can ask for out of these girls.”
Cienna Nightingale led the Mendon attack with 14 kills, adding 12 digs, while Gracie Shultz had nine kills and 19 digs. Karyssa Holtz had 24 assists for the Hornets (38-7-1), while Jadyn Samson had 20 digs.
“Good for them, they found our weaknesses and found ways to shut us down,” Schultz said. “We played as well as we could. I wouldn’t have done anything different. We gave everything on the court.”
PHOTOS (Top) Fowler’s Skylar Fowler (7) powers a kill past Mendon’s Gracie Schultz (7) and Sabrina Monroy (12) during Saturday’s Division 4 Final. (Middle) The Eagles’ Paige Thelen (13) connects as Karyssa Holtz (3) and Lashell Blair line up to block.