Irish Cap Dominating Run to Class B Win
November 23, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
BATTLE CREEK – Pontiac Notre Dame Prep volleyball coach Betty Wroubel has won 772 matches over the last 20 seasons. She had brought one other team to an MHSAA championship game, the eventual Class B champion in Fall 2007.
But it’s a fair argument none of her best dominated quite like her Fighting Irish did this fall in finishing off their second MHSAA title – although they had to win one of their toughest matches to finish the run.
Notre Dame, the top-ranked team at the start of the tournament, beat No. 3 North Branch in Tuesday’s Quarterfinal, then No. 2 Wayland in the semi before surviving a late surge by No. 5 Grand Rapids South Christian to win the championship match Saturday in four sets, 25-15, 25-19, 19-25, 25-23.
After falling behind two sets to none, the Sailors (46-12-1) simply wouldn’t go away – and nearly drew even in the fourth after trailing by as many as five points.
But the Irish’s dominant front line was just a little too much to overcome as it finished with 60 kills – good to tie for eighth-most in MHSAA Finals history during the rally-scoring era.
“We’ve been through so many challenges and all of these teams that we’ve been playing, and our team chemistry is just so amazing; we can just trust each other and be confident with ourselves,” Notre Dame junior hitter Katherine Carlson said. “We finished because we can really just trust each other on the court. We were getting our passes, getting our sets (and) we could just go up, be confident, be aggressive and swing.”
Notre Dame’s only losses this fall were to Class A Semifinalist Temperance Bedford and honorable mention Lake Orion. But it wasn’t until the North Branch win Tuesday that Wroubel became convinced her Irish were prepared to finish the week with the program’s second title.
Carlson had with 25 kills Saturday, tying for ninth-most in an MHSAA Final, followed by senior Dani McCormick with 17 and junior Jenna Sassack with 12. The Irish (62-2-1) also had the sixth-most assists in a Finals, 58, and piled up 85 digs with four in double figures led by sophomore Emma Kowalkowski with 20 – tied for 10th most in Finals history.
In the last set alone, Carlson responded to five South Christian points with kills, while McCormick ended two rallies.
“What Katherine Carlson does just amazes me sometimes on the court. I don’t know how she has that court sense, how she knows sometimes where to put the ball. There’s some rallies, and the other team is getting some confidence, and she comes up and puts the ball on the floor and brings it back to us,” Wroubel said. “And Dani McCormick the last four to six weeks has been outstanding.
“In volleyball, if you have one good player out there, you’re tough to beat. You have a couple of them, and you’re going to have to play some darn good defense to knock them off.”
But as the match went on, South Christian’s strengthened. The record book will list a few Sailors performances as well – their 10 blocks make the list, with junior Ashley VanderHorst’s seven ranking among the top individual totals.
South Christian coach Allison Sagraves called Notre Dame the toughest team hers played in the tournament, but the Sailors hung tough after the disappointing start.
That was characteristic of the team’s season. It lost a key middle blocker for the rest of the fall on Oct. 24, which could’ve sunk the Sailors – but instead became a turning point. South Christian was in a bit of a lull at that point, but emerged and didn’t give up a set in the postseason until the championship match.
“I thought we kept fighting no matter what, and the end of Game 4 just showed what these girls have. Just because they had 24, that didn’t mean we were going to roll over and end it,” Sagraves said. “We fought right back, and we really believed we were going to come back and win.
“We talked about that in our timeouts: We’re fighters, and we’re not going to quit, and we’re going to force them to beat us.”
Five seniors started for South Christian, and hitter Taylor Wierenga finished her final high school match with 17 kills, while Cassidy Vredevoogd had 13 and middle Danielle Oeverman had 10. Senior setter Emily Blankespoor had 41 assists, and five Sailors had double-digit digs: Blankespoor and sophomore Abbie Porter with 14 apiece, Vredevoogd with 12 (along with five blocks) and senior Morgan Torres and junior Clarissa VanderHoning with 10 apiece.
Junior Ashley Knutson had 36 assists and 12 digs for Notre Dame, while Carlson added 13 digs and junior Bella Bucchi had 17. Junior Hannah Antosz added 20 assists.
PHOTOS: (Middle) Pontiac Notre Dame Prep hitter Katherine Carlson follows through as her teammates anticipate a kill during Saturday’s championship match. (Middle) The Irish celebrate their first MHSAA championship since 2007. (Below) South Christian’s Danielle Oeverman sends the ball toward the net as two Notre Dame blockers prepare to deflect it.
South Lyon's Wesner Turns Full Focus to School Sports, Big Finish to 11-Letter Career
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
January 9, 2026
SOUTH LYON — South Lyon senior Teagen Wesner isn’t hesitant to offer advice to younger athletes on the benefits of playing high school sports.
“It teaches you a lot, it brings you good friends,” Wesner said. “Being on the court and being on a team, it just brings you so much more knowledge you can’t learn in the classroom. I’ve learned so many things through sports, it’s something that’s irreplaceable to me.”
And younger athletes should certainly listen to Wesner, given she is quite an example of someone who has fully embraced all that high school sports have to offer.
When she graduates in a few months, Wesner will have 11 varsity letters, earned as three-sport athlete from the moment she arrived at South Lyon High School.
She has been on the varsity volleyball and ski teams since she was a freshman, and has been a member of South Lyon United’s lacrosse team since she was a sophomore (after playing on the JV lacrosse team as a freshman).
“It made me be a well-rounded athlete,” Wesner said of playing multiple sports. “I’ve gotten thrown into a whole bunch of different positions depending on what the coaches need. Having a background in multiple different sports really has helped my athleticism. I feel like I have matured a little more than others because I’ve been in highly competitive environments.”
Wesner said she has skied since she was 3 years old and played club volleyball since she was in elementary school, but made a decision during her junior year that reflected how much she loves playing high school sports.
Instead of playing club volleyball again after that high school volleyball season ended, Wesner decided to concentrate more on her high school teams.
“I just liked high school sports better,” she said. “Club was a lot of fun, but high school has all the people and everything.”
This past fall, Wesner was a captain of the volleyball team and an all-league performer in the Lakes Valley Conference.
This winter, Wesner is serving as captain of the South Lyon United ski team, as she hopes to build on a junior season where she was all-conference in both slalom and giant slalom.
In the spring, Wesner plans to once again play lacrosse and try and repeat what was an improbable success story last year.
Wesner, who said she stopped playing lacrosse in middle school before picking it back up again during her freshman year, took over as South Lyon United’s goalie in the fourth game of the season after the original starter was lost for the season with a torn ACL.
Wesner had played twice as goalie while in middle school, but was mainly a defender. However, desperate times called for desperate measures, so Wesner took over.
“Our goalie tore her ACL and we really didn’t have anyone else on the team, (to play the position),” Wesner said. “I just did whatever my coach needed. She knew with my background in other sports, I could pick it up quickly.”
Weeks later, Wesner and South Lyon United ended up celebrating its first MHSAA Finals championship with a 6-3 win over Hartland in the Division 1 title game.
“Taking a demanding role under high pressure, Teagan remained positive, composed and team-focused throughout the transition,” South Lyon United girls lacrosse coach Deanna Radcliffe said. “Her willingness to do whatever the team needed, combined with her resilience and steady presence, gave the team confidence during a critical stretch of the season.”
Recovering from losing its starting goalie early in the regular season to winning Division 1 was quite an improbable journey, but South Lyon did it with a stout defense and Wesner adapting so quickly her new position.
“I just kind of learned on the fly and let my instincts take over,” Wesner said. “During the season, I definitely got more training that made me way better. At the start, it was just like, 'Don’t let the ball hit you.'”
This spring, Wesner likely will return to her natural position as a defender with the starting goalie expected to be healed from her injury.
At the moment, Wesner doesn’t plan to play any of her three sports in college other than at an intramural level, which will make her cherish her high school years and all those varsity letters even more.
“I’m probably going to put them in a drawer,” she said. “But I think it’ll be cool to look back on. I’ll definitely glow on it for a couple of days. I think it’s a good accomplishment to something I’ve been working towards all four years of high school.”
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS (Top) South Lyon’s Teagen Wesner races downhill during ski season. (Middle) Wesner (7) shares a laugh with a volleyball teammate. (Below) Wesner warms up in goal during last spring’s lacrosse season. (Photos provided by the Wesner family.)