Northville Finishes 3rd-Straight Trip to Kellogg as 1st-Time Finals Champion
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 23, 2024
BATTLE CREEK – As the Northville volleyball team knows all too well, only one team in each division can leave Kellogg Arena happy each year.
For the first time Saturday, the Mustangs were that team in Division 1.
After finishing as runner-up in 2022 and losing in the Semifinals in 2023, Northville got over the hump this year, defeating Rockford 26-24, 25-16, 25-27, 25-22 to claim its first Finals title on the volleyball court.
“Every time I’ve walked out of this place, I’ve been sad for the last two years,” Northville senior Molly Reck said. “Being able to leave happy is just an indescribable feeling. I can’t even put it into words.”
Reck and her twin sister Mallory, along with senior setter Ella Craggs and junior libero Giselle Burlingame, were part of each team that made it to the final weekend over the past three years. On Saturday, they were winning not only for themselves and their teammates, but everyone who had come with them before.
“Their sister, Abby Reck, when we were in the Finals (in 2022) came into the locker room and said, ‘You’ll be back, this will help you,’” Northville coach Sarah Lindstrom said. “(Former players) Greta McKee, Ashlee Gnau, Avry Nelson, Ava Thomas, these players that were here for the last four years that bought into what we were bringing to Northville. Northville was good at volleyball before, but these kids trusted us and our coaching staff, and this wasn’t just for the people here. We kept saying during that match, this is for all of your teammates in the past that have built something, brick by brick they put together what we think might be a dynasty. We’re just so grateful for everybody that’s been a part of this.”
The Reck twins and Craggs led the Northville attack Saturday, with Molly (26) and Mallory (20) combining for 46 kills and Craggs finishing with 49 assists. Mallory Reck added 15 digs, while Molly Reck had 10.
But they were far from alone. Burlingame had 18 digs, while junior Kaylyn Tuck had seven kills and four blocks and senior Brooke Feller had six blocks.
“We put a lot of work into – I kept telling them, ‘The three of you (Reck, Reck and Craggs) can’t win a state championship,’” Lindstrom said. “‘We’ve seen that before. You need other people around you.’ And we work on our cohesiveness all the time and building up those other kids.”
Northville (41-2) nearly swept its way to the title, as it had a match point in the third set. But Rockford held on, thanks to a pair of kills from Olivia Hosford to take a 25-24 lead, and eventually won the set to force a fourth.
“I just have so much confidence in every single one of my teammates,” Rockford senior Layla Visser said. “I know what we can do. We can put the ball away, and we can make the right play no matter how many points we’re down.”
That confidence in each other carried over to the fourth set for the Rams. While it was mostly back and forth, Rockford was able to build a 20-16 lead before Northville closed on a 9-2 run to win the title. Mallory Reck served out the final four points, with a pair of aces to close the victory.
“In my head I was kind of just thinking, ‘As much as I don’t want to serve this ball, I know the feeling of being on the other side, and they don’t want to pass this ball just as much,’” Mallory Reck said. “So, that kind of just calmed me down and I was thinking, ‘Serve to get an ace.’ That’s what we’ve worked on all year; we’ve focused really hard on serving. I just took a deep breath and just served it.”
Hosford led the Rockford attack with 22 kills, adding 11 digs. Sophomore Mallory Wandel had 16 kills and 19 digs, while Visser had 10 kills. Isabella Delacher had 25 assists, Ashley Williams had 22 assists, and Eleanor Goad had 12 digs for the Rams (41-10).
“Proud of our girls. They battled against a very good Northville team,” Rockford coach Kelly Delacher said. “It felt like we might have been down and out after the second set and midway through the third set, and they did a great job of battling back to force that fourth set. Overall, proud of my players and proud of our seniors and the way they led us out there.”
PHOTOS (Top) Northville’s side of the court celebrates Saturday, including Brooke Feller (4). (Middle) The Mustangs’ Molly Reck (8) sends a spike into an awaiting Rockford block. (Below) Northville players raise their championship trophy. (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
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.)