Kalamazoo Christian Continues to Inspire, Taking Final Step for 1st Title
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 18, 2023
BATTLE CREEK – The ball hadn’t stopped bouncing before the tears came for Holland DeVries.
The Kalamazoo Christian senior’s spike caromed off a Traverse City St. Francis block Saturday, spinning to the ground to end the Division 3 Volleyball Final at Kellogg Arena.
DeVries immediately turned, emotions taking over her face, and joined her teammates in a pile on the court.
“I’ve been on this team for four years, and we’ve worked so hard – I’ve been playing since sixth grade with six of these seniors,” DeVries said. “It just means so much to us, because this is all we’ve worked for since we were literally 10 years old. It just means so much.”
DeVries and the Comets defeated St. Francis 26-24, 16-25, 25-23, 25-20 to claim the first volleyball title in school history. It came a year after they were runners-up, losing in four sets against Pewamo-Westphalia.
Earlier in the week, the Comets slayed that dragon, downing the Pirates in a Quarterfinal, but they weren’t satisfied until coach Carlie Southland was handed the Finals championship trophy.
“Especially for our seniors, we had six of them this year, and this was their last shot,” Southland said. “We made it a goal to win the state Finals, so it feels extra good to have done that. We watched a lot of film from last year and said, ‘What are the reasons that we lost?’ We watched that film, we picked out those reasons and said, ‘OK, we’re going to work on those reasons this year at the beginning of the year to make sure we are ready to come back here again this year.’”
The main takeaway? Mental toughness.
DeVries said she and her teammates knew that had to be a focus if they were going to achieve their goals, and it was apparent Saturday, as it was tested early and often.
Kalamazoo Christian didn’t take a lead in the first set until 25-24, as it fell behind 13-3.
After chipping away and spending most of the set down a single point, a kill from DeVries and an emphatic block by Hayden Deming gave the Comets the 26-24 victory in the set, which featured seven kills from Makenna Ekkens.
While St. Francis won the second set going away, the third and fourth were back and forth throughout, but it was the Comets who found a way to come out ahead in each.
“My team literally just was so good and pushed through,” DeVries said. “We didn’t play the best that we’ve played all tournament, but I still think that it shows that even when we’re not playing great, we can still push through and still win. We’ve been working a lot on mental toughness, and I think we did well on that tonight.”
DeVries finished with 16 kills and 27 digs for the Comets (43-6-3), while Ekkens had 17 kills and 14 digs. They’re two of the six seniors, joined by classmates Mackenzie Ash, Lola Stecker, Jovie Cochran and Sophia Nash.
All six contributed to the program’s first Finals title.
Cochran finished her last match with a team-high 28 digs, while Stecker had 39 assists and 11 digs. Ash had four total blocks, and Nash had five digs.
“It makes me so emotional, because I know that there’s younger girls now that look up to us a lot,” DeVries said. “I know that there’s 40-something girls trying out for the team. That just shows that we’ve inspired them to play, and I hope that this program keeps building on and on.”
Annelise DeJong added 11 kills for Kalamazoo Christian.
St. Francis also was seeking its first title, having been Class C runner-up in 2012. With just two seniors on the roster and several sophomore contributors, however, the future looks very bright.
It was one of those seniors, Garnet Mullet, who tied for the team lead with 15 kills for St. Francis (38-10-1), to go along with 18 digs.
Quinn Yenshaw also had 15 kills and added 19 digs for the Gladiators, while Reese Jones had 24 assists and 19 digs, and Tessah Konas had 15 assists.
“Our focus has been on shifting our culture to playing for each other instead of ourselves for a long time,” St. Francis coach Kathleen Nance said. “They really owned that. I think that we’re just going to continue to climb.”
PHOTOS (Top) Kalamazoo Christian players hoist their Division 3 championship trophy Saturday at Kellogg Arena. (Middle) Kalamazoo Christian's Holland DeVries (5) attempts to block a kill attempt by St. Francis' Claire Hurley (9). (Below) Jovie Cochran (8) and Makenna Ekkens celebrate. (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
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.)