Leland Reloads, Returns to Final Week
November 13, 2016
By Dennis Chase
Special for Second Half
LELAND – It’s championship week in the MHSAA volleyball tournament – and defending Class D champion Leland is hoping it’s another November to remember.
Leland captured its sixth consecutive Regional on Thursday with a hard-fought 25-15, 25-23, 25-22 triumph over Fife Lake Forest Area. The Comets now face Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart in a Quarterfinal on Tuesday at Buckley. A win would advance Leland to the Final Four at Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek for the fourth year in a row, and it would also be the 1,000th career victory for coach Laurie Glass.
The Comets are enjoying success with a rebuilt lineup in 2016. Leland lost three senior starters off last November’s title team, including all-staters Maddie Trumbull and Eva Grobbel, who led the squad in kills and blocks. Then, during the summer, the Comets lost returning letterwinner Rachel Bechtel to a knee injury.
Glass adjusted, aided by a strong sophomore class that’s put Leland (41-10-4) in the title hunt again. Five sophomores played considerable minutes Thursday, including two, Allie Martin and Ella Siddall, who were starters a year ago.
With all that youth, Glass wondered prior to the season about chemistry, and how the underclassmen would “mesh” with the six seniors. Turns out, she had nothing to worry about.
“This team has been all in since day one,” she said.
The Regional title was proof. It took a team effort to beat Forest Area.
“I think the strength of this team is the bond, the relationships we have with each other,” Siddall said afterwards. “We’ve worked so hard together – from June until now – to get better. That’s been our goal, and I think we’ve accomplished it. I couldn’t be prouder of this team.”
Glass, who’s won MHSAA Finals championships as a player and coach at Leland, was feeling a deep sense of pride as she watched her players receive their medals Thursday night.
“It never gets old,” she said. “I’m just so thankful that this group, which has worked super hard, had a chance to feel what it’s like to get that medal. They earned it, they deserved it. They put in the time and energy, mentally and physically, to get it done. I don’t think you could want more as a coach then to watch the kids reap the benefits of their hard work.”
The win over Forest Area did not come easy. Martin, based on her experience last season, expected as much.
“The farther you get in the playoffs, the more you have to battle because the better the teams get,” she said. “They’re (Forest Area) a very good team. They were digging everything. It was fun to play competition like that.”
Glass told her Comets, ranked No. 3 in the coaches’ poll, that they should always enjoy playing a quality foe.
“I said, ‘Isn’t it much more fun to play a game that’s on the line then to play in a blowout that doesn’t feel great when you’re done?’” she said. “When it’s tight we should be going, ‘Oh my gosh, this is the best thing ever.’ I thought we played like that tonight. We embraced it.
“I thought it was going to be exactly what it was,” she added. “I thought they were going to dig a ton of balls. I thought they were going to bring it at us hard. I thought we were going to have to serve pretty well to keep them out of their offense. And I thought we were going to have to dig.”
And that’s what happened in a match that featured several lengthy volleys.
“They showed intensity, they showed perseverance,” senior libero Julie Bardenhagen said. “We just had to stick to what we do best on our side (of the net).”
Martin, Siddall, Bardenhagen and junior Rowan Wilson gained valuable experience a year ago, and they’ve been leading the charge this season. Statistically, Martin leads in kills (534) and aces (114) and is second in digs (479). Siddall is tops in assists (1,100), Bardenhagen in digs (514). Wilson is second in kills (373) and third in digs (475).
But there’s so much more, too. On Thursday, senior Kira Metcalf (six kills), and sophomores Margie Stowe (12 digs, two aces), Maddy Grosvenor (five kills, one ace) and Hanna Elwell (nine kills) displayed their capabilities.
Glass is now a win away from joining an exclusive group of coaches. Only 10 other Michigan high school volleyball coaches have achieved 1,000 or more career wins.
Glass said when she looks back it’s the players, not the wins, that stand out.
“I remember the girls,” she said, “and the things they went through, the challenges they overcame, the mental things they had to surpass in order to be their better self. I’ve watched the transformation of these girls from the middle school right on through our program – under guidance of great people below me. It’s been a great experience. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, doing anything else.”
Dennis Chase worked 32 years as a sportswriter at the Traverse City Record-Eagle, including as sports editor from 2000-14. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Leland setter Ella Siddall prepares to pass to a teammate approaching the net. (Middle) Libero Julie Bardenhagen receives during a match this season. (Photos by Sarah Grosvenor.)
Russell Twins Set High Bar Standing Tall Together for Mona Shores Sports
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
April 16, 2026
Maddie and Laynie Russell have been such a big part (literally) of Muskegon Mona Shores girls sports over the past four years that it’s difficult to imagine the Sailors without them.
Opposing basketball and volleyball coaches certainly won’t miss them, as figuring out a way to handle the “twin towers” was Job 1 when playing Shores.
Laynie (6-foot-3) and Maddie (slightly shorter at 6-2½) are fraternal twins and four-year varsity players in both volleyball and basketball, having entered the starting lineup four years ago as 14-year-olds. Both made an immediate impact and progressed to become Muskegon All-Area “Dream Team” volleyball players the past two years.
“They looked like grown women, but they weren’t,” said Mona Shores girls basketball coach Mike Phillips, who met with the family to talk about moving both girls up to varsity when they were still just 13 years old.
“It would have been easy for them to crumble under that kind of pressure, but they handled themselves unbelievably well.”
And the twins, who are both near the top of their class academically with weighted GPAs greater than 4.0, are not quite done helping Shores sports.
Currently, Maddie is an attacker in lacrosse and Laynie is playing No. 1 doubles in tennis. Both will graduate in June with 11 varsity letters.
Then they will have a few months to enjoy their summer passions for jet skis and water skis, before heading in different directions.
Laynie has committed to play volleyball at Northern Michigan and is undecided about her field of study. Maddie will play volleyball at Indiana Tech, where she plans to major in pharmacy.
Intense Maddie
Maddie is more emotional and expressive and wears her heart on her sleeve.
She was “super tenacious” way back in youth soccer and in another one of her loves, swimming, where she was a state champion in the breaststroke at age 7.
Then it appeared for some time that softball would be “her thing,” excelling as a power hitter at the plate and with her long stretch playing first base.
“Sports has always been our life, and it’s just natural for us to go from one sport to another,” said Maddie, who didn’t start playing volleyball until middle school.
“I love being a part of different teams because you meet different friends in each one. Plus, I think it has helped me physically and to avoid injuries because I wasn’t just doing the same thing over and over.”
Maddie made her mark in basketball as a dominant inside force, particularly as a defender and rebounder. In volleyball, she was an outside hitter who could move around and was an excellent passer, finishing her career with 681 kills and 166 blocks.
Her favorite memory is winning four straight city volleyball titles and then helping her team break through and win a Division 1 District volleyball championship her junior year, as the team finished 32-10.
She believes her busy high school experience has prepared her for college. In addition to being a three-sport athlete at Shores, she also played travel in three sports (volleyball, basketball and softball), took AP classes, was a member of National Honor Society and worked as a lifeguard and babysitter.
“I don’t know how she did it some of those days,” said dad Mike Russell, shaking his head. “But we were lucky because both girls are very self-motivated. We didn’t have to get on them very much.”
Poker-faced Laynie
Laynie is more even-keeled and keeps her emotions in check, and it’s hard to tell whether she is having a rough game or is going off for 31 points, which she did in an early-season basketball win last season.
Laynie, who was born two minutes after Maddie on Aug. 14, 2008, was bigger at birth (she was 7 pounds, 4 ounces and Maddie was 5 pounds, 7 ounces). Then Maddie shot up and was taller in elementary school, they were about even in middle school, and now Laynie is about a half-inch taller.
Their height came as no surprise as Mike is 6-5 and their mom Jennifer is 6-1.
The tallest member of the Russell family is older brother Donovan, a 2022 Mona Shores graduate who is 6-8 and plays on the Michigan State men’s club volleyball team. “Dono” will graduate in May with a civil engineering degree.
Like her sister, Laynie is happiest when bouncing from sport to sport. She remembers briefly considering not playing a spring sport as a freshman.
“I didn’t do anything for like a week after basketball season and I was so bored,” said Laynie, who is serving her school this year as the National Honor Society chapter president. “That’s when I knew I had to be doing something, so I went out for tennis.”
Basketball was her favorite sport for many years, and she certainly left her mark on the hardwood, finishing as the 12th-leading scorer in school history and setting the school’s single-season rebounding record her junior year. Laynie, who could handle the ball like a guard and made 38 3-pointers during her career, was a two-time Ottawa-Kent Conference Green all-league selection.
It wasn’t until the past couple years that volleyball became her clear focus. Laynie is a dominant hitter and blocker at the net, finishing with 711 kills and 224 blocks.
Her most memorable games both came during her junior year, and both were big wins in front of rowdy crowds at the Sailor Center – a volleyball victory over No. 6-ranked Jenison, which featured a wild 38-36 win in the final set, and then a basketball upset of rival Muskegon.
But she said her most meaningful memory is time spent volunteering at youth volleyball and basketball clinics.
“We always worked a ton of youth camps, and I always loved that,” said Laynie, who is considering becoming a teacher and coach someday. “It’s fun seeing how excited (kids) get when they figure something out. And now some of those girls have grown up and they’re going to be taking our place.”
Separate ways
The “Russell twins” will, in many ways, truly will become Maddie and Laynie for the first time this fall.
Maddie will journey 216 miles south to Indiana Tech, which is in Fort Wayne, and Laynie will venture 417 miles in the opposite direction to Northern Michigan in Marquette.
“It’s going to be hard, for sure, but I’m trying to focus on what a unique opportunity it will be for both of them,” said Jennifer Russell. “For the first time, they will each have their own separate life, and I am excited for that.”
One thing is for certain: mom’s day-in, day-out Google calendar will free up immensely.
Right now, it’s somewhat comical when she calls up her color-coded family calendar on her phone (Maddie is purple, Laynie is pink, Dono is green, etc.) and it looks like a rainbow, with a crazy blend of school activities, school sports, travel sports, family obligations and work.
Dono will graduate from MSU next month, the twins will graduate from Mona Shores in June and then they will head off and begin their college journeys in August.
Mike and Jennifer, both 1988 Shores graduates and high school sweethearts, will be empty nesters, but at least will still have the family’s two dogs, Scout and Coco. The biggest challenge will be finding a way to be in two places at once – with the twins playing volleyball 633 miles apart.
About one mile away from their home at Mona Shores High School, the Sailors girls sports programs will need to replace two standouts who gave everything they had to their school – as individuals, teammates and role models for little girls in the community.
“Maddie and Laynie always put their school and their teammates above themselves,” said Phillips, whose three daughters played with and became friends with the Russell twins. “Their focus was, how can I help my school? In the spring it was, how can I help another one of our teams?
“What I will remember most about them is the great people and teammates that they were. I will be forever grateful to them for that.”
Tom Kendra worked 23 years at The Muskegon Chronicle, including five as assistant sports editor and the final six as sports editor through 2011. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Muskegon, Oceana, Mason, Lake, Oceola, Mecosta and Newaygo counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Senior twins Laynie Russell (left) and Maddie Russell (right) have left their mark on the Muskegon Mona Shores athletic program as standout three-sport athletes. (2) Laynie (left) and Maddie are all smiles for a much earlier photo. (3) Maddie (left) and Laynie (right) are dominant forces at the volleyball net, shown here going up for a double block. (4) Jennifer, Maddie, Laynie and Mike Russell pose for a photo with the Sailors' Division 1 District championship trophy Nov. 7, 2024, at Coopersville. (Top photo courtesy of Billinghurst Photography. Family photos courtesy of Jennifer Russell. Action photo by Eric Sturr.)