Italian Exchange Student Cerma Lends Big Swing, Enthusiasm to Escanaba
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
October 31, 2023
ESCANABA — Andrea Cerma is not new to volleyball.
Playing at Escanaba High School, this fall, however, was a new experience for the exchange student from Italy.
The senior left-handed hitter made the most of her opportunity while becoming one of the team’s leaders. Escanaba’s season came to an end Monday with a Division 2 District loss to Houghton.
“Andrea has brought a lot of passion,” coach Adam Lambert said. “She celebrates every point, which is something Escanaba has struggled with. Here, they celebrate the big points. I think some of it has rubbed off on the other girls. It’s contagious.”
There are no school-sponsored teams in Italy, where athletes instead play on club teams.
“The culture is completely different,” Cerma said. “We play outside. It would be warm over there for Michigan people. We also get a lot of wind. The wind has zero effect when you play inside, but it’s more of a factor outside.
Cerma is a left-handed hitter and said she believes that threw opponents off at first. Also an 88-percent server, she averaged five kills, three assists and three digs a game and had a 1.71 serve receive rating through the end of the regular season last week. She collected six kills in a 3-0 victory over Menominee and added seven kills and five assists in last Tuesday’s 3-1 (25-23, 20-25, 25-17, 25-22) loss to Marquette.
“Andrea is our leading scorer,” Lambert said last week. “She’s very coachable and not afraid to ask questions if she doesn’t understand a drill or an assignment.
"Over there, they do more stretching. Here, teams shake hands and go home after the matches. Andrea does stretching after every match and leads the other girls in stretching, although it hasn’t really caught on here yet.”
“Andrea has brought a lot of excitement and new things to our team,” senior Aleaha Lambert added. “She has a great swing. We’re learning new ways to do things. Right now we need to work on reaching high and following through on our swings.”
Prior to last Thursday’s 3-0 loss (25-21, 25-14, 25-15) to Manistique, Cerma had 132 kills, 87 digs, 77 assists and 12 blocks on the season.
“Andrea has been real flexible,” Coach Lambert said. “We moved her to an outside hitter position which made it easier for her to get some shots. She had one perfect night where she didn’t have any hitting errors. She's a very accurate hitter. She had as many (as) 17-18 kills in one match. Other teams didn’t see that coming. She can see the court real well. Andrea has been a nice addition to our team.”
Cerma finished with three kills and three digs in Thursday’s regular-season finale against the Emeralds. She added two kills, an assist and three digs against Houghton in the closing 18-25, 18-25, 25-23, 23-25 defeat.
“(Manistique’s) energy is very high,” junior Lily Nelson said after that match. “They were paying attention to Andrea for sure. She’s a real good all-around player who brings a lot of energy to our team.”
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.
PHOTOS (top) Escanaba’s Andrea Cerma prepares to serve against Marquette on Oct. 24. (Middle) Cerma (13) ascends to kill the ball during a match against Manistique on Thursday. (Photos courtesy of the Escanaba Daily Press.)
'On the Map:' Nwabueze Hitting Rising Bloomfield Hills Into Championship Mix
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
October 30, 2025
BLOOMFIELD HILLS – Those who have kept an eye on the Division 1 state volleyball rankings this season may have done a double take at least a few times throughout the fall.
Was that Bloomfield Hills consistently ranked among the top five and now No. 2 in the latest coaches poll? Ahead of state powers such as Farmington Hills Mercy and Bloomfield Hills Marian?
Yes, that has been the case.
“I think we’ve put ourselves on the map this year,” said senior Kayla Nwabueze.
To those more familiar with Bloomfield Hills, it’s easier to see the biggest reason why the Blackhawks have become such a force – Nwabueze’s transcendent talent.
A finalist for the Miss Volleyball Award, she just surpassed 2,000 career kills, 1,000 career digs and 1,300 career receptions, and owns the school record for kills (2,013 heading into Wednesday’s match against Rochester).
Nwabueze has excelled at multiple positions on the court throughout her high school and club careers. But this season, first-year Bloomfield Hills head coach Brian Kim decided to put Nwabueze exclusively at outside hitter, and she had delivered with 547 kills heading into that Rochester match.
“It allowed her to have a more defined role in our offense,” Kim said. “Middle is her primary position, and she is extremely strong and capable in the middle. But we moved her to the outside to help out our offense.”
Nwabueze didn’t start club volleyball until age 12. But that didn’t mean she didn’t have skills already developed. Nwabueze has an older sister, Ashlea, who played the sport, and the two would constantly do drills and have practice sessions together before Kayla got into club ball.
“We definitely were playing outside,” Kayla said. “She definitely taught me to play volleyball in the backyard and helped me grow in volleyball.”
As much of a surgeon as Nwabueze is on the court – showing exceptional precision with her hitting – she wants to be an even better one off the court one day.
Nwabueze will play college volleyball at Harvard, where she wants to study medicine and ultimately become an orthopedic surgeon.
Nwabueze carries a 4.0 grade-point average attending the prestigious International Academy in Bloomfield Hills, which doesn’t have sports programs and allows students to play sports in the Bloomfield Hills district.
While she had overtures to play for more prominent college volleyball programs, the academic side of things was more of a priority – making Harvard the fit.
“I was just thinking about more than just volleyball and what I wanted to do after the fact,” said Nwabueze, who also considered Yale. “Harvard really had a nice plan for me.”
But there is more business to be taken care of in the coming weeks before Nwabueze starts focusing on that part of her future.
First, she is a legitimate candidate to become the first player in school history to win the Miss Volleyball Award.
More importantly, she wants to help Bloomfield Hills continue what’s been a historic season.
The Black Hawks will play in a District next week at Troy Athens, where a likely District Final matchup with No. 4-ranked and neighbor Bloomfield Hills Marian awaits.
Each team has a bye into Wednesday’s semifinal round, and barring major upsets, they should get through to face each other on Nov. 7.
“It is special to know that I broke some of the records here and set that bar,” Nwabueze said. “We have done so good this year, and we are still going and are still playing hard. I hope we can go farther.”
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.
PHOTO (Top) Bloomfield Hills’ Kayla Nwabueze (19) winds up for a kill attempt this season against Lake Orion. (Photo by Kristina Sikora/KMS Photography. Headshot by Keith Dunlap.)