Performance: Southfield Christian's Emily Van Dyke
November 22, 2019
Emily Van Dyke
Southfield Christian senior – Volleyball
The 5-foot-11 outside hitter helped Southfield Christian to its third straight Division 4 Regional title with 15 kills and 10 digs against Allen Park Inter-City Baptist in the Semifinal and 20 kills in the championship match against Marine City Cardinal Mooney to earn the MHSAA “Performance of the Week.” The Eagles’ tournament run came to an end in a Thursday Semifinal loss to Mendon, and Van Dyke will graduate as her school’s record holder in a variety of categories including career kills, digs and aces.
Van Dyke joined the varsity as a freshman, and the team’s Regional title in 2017 and Semifinal trip in 2018 both were program firsts. She finished this season with 556 kills, 349 digs and 46 aces, and finished her career with 1,641 kills, 1,357 digs and 282 aces – the career kills and aces qualifying for the MHSAA record book. She nearly reached her school single-match record of 32 kills in the Semifinal, tallying 31 along with 16 digs as the Eagles lost a five-set heart-breaker to the reigning Division 4 champion Hornets. Southfield Christian finished the season 29-8-4 and went 111-34-12 over her four seasons with one league (this season) and four District titles to go with the three Regional championships.
The Eagles enjoyed a rare but beneficial setup this fall as Van Dyke was joined by five more seniors in the starting lineup, with the team’s other four players all sophomores. She’s grown up with volleyball – her parents both played at the college level, and her father Mike Van Dyke is Southfield Christian’s coach. After making the Division 4 all-state second team as a sophomore and first team as a junior, Emily likely is in line for another high honor this fall – and she also signed last week with Division I Abilene Christian University in Texas. She carries a 4.0 grade-point average and plans to study one of the sciences.
Coach (and dad) Mike Van Dyke said: “It’s good and bad (to be coach and Dad), because she ends up getting coached at practice and coached at home. Her mom and I both played volleyball in college, so she got a lot of feedback early and throughout her volleyball (development). … (But I’m most impressed by) just her willingness to be coached and to learn – she keeps working to improve her game. She still hasn’t plateaued. She gets better and better. We’re excited to see her playing in college.”
Performance Point: “It was a lot of pressure on the team, being six seniors. But we prepared and we did our absolute best coming up to today,” Emily Van Dyke said after Thursday’s Semifinal. “This year, I’ve been focusing on how to be a better leader. It’s not about your words; it’s about your actions. So whether I’m doing my best to get a kill or going up every time to get a block, (it’s) just anything I can do to contribute to them and bring everybody up.”
They bring me up too: “(I’ll remember) all the crazy things our team has done or gotten into. I love each of them individually. And I would never be here playing volleyball at this level if it wasn’t for them.”
Dad’s known best: “Sometimes it’s been a little rough (with him as coach too), but I wouldn’t pick a different coach in the world. I loved playing for him, and it’s really been a blast. I’ve loved all four years of high school volleyball.”
Texas, here I come: “It’s a long story, but our JV coach is from Texas, and she said, ‘You would love Texas; just look.’ So I started looking at schools everywhere, and then I found a couple in Texas I was interested in. So that’s how I ended up getting there – (and) Abilene just connected with me. I’m so excited to go down and keep playing volleyball.”
Thank you Eagles: “I think I’m going to miss the connection I have with all the players. Most of them I have in lots of my classes, so we’re friends outside of just the sport. … I wouldn’t trade this moment for the world. I’m so proud of my team.”
– Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Past honorees
Nov. 14: Taylor Wegener, Ida volleyball - Report
Nov. 7: Carter Solomon, Plymouth cross country - Report
Oct. 31: Jameson Goorman, Muskegon Western Michigan Christian soccer - Report
Oct. 24: Austin Plotkin, Brimley cross country - Report
Oct. 17: Jack Spamer, Brighton cross country - Report
Oct. 10: Kaylee Maat, Hudsonville volleyball - Report
Oct. 3: Emily Paupore, Negaunee cross country - Report
Sept. 26: Josh Mason, South Lyon soccer - Report
Sept. 19: Ariel Chang, Utica Eisenhower golf - Report
Sept. 12: Jordyn Shipps, DeWitt swimming - Report
PHOTOS: (Top) Southfield Christian’s Emily Van Dyke winds up for a kill attempt during last week’s Division 4 Regional Final win over Marine City Cardinal Mooney. (Middle) Van Dyke works for a point during the Regional Semifinal against Allen Park Inter-City Baptist. (Photos by Dave Veldman/Southfield Christian.)
Fowler Seniors Make Childhood Dream Come True with 1st Finals Championship
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 22, 2025
BATTLE CREEK – The Fowler volleyball team called its shot in January, naming its group chat “State Champs.”
But the Class of 2026 has believed that was the endgame for much longer than that.
Behind the leadership of nine seniors, they made it happen Saturday, as the Eagles claimed the school’s first volleyball Finals title, sweeping Mendon 30-28, 25-19, 25-22 in the Division 4 championship match at Kellogg Arena.
“I think we’ve known the whole time that if we stick with it and we push each other, that we could do good things,” senior middle hitter Josie Simon said. “I think especially last year, we wanted to do it for those seniors, and that hurt us. We knew during that Regional Final game that it was the big game, so when we lost we knew we had to come in this year and we were ready to go. We knew what we were chasing.”
Saturday’s Finals appearance was just the second in school history for Fowler, and first since 2017. That year, Simon and her classmates were fourth graders, and several of them were at Kellogg Arena watching.
The following year, their own journey began.
“I’m super thrilled for them, and they literally have been talking about this since they were in the fifth grade when they started playing volleyball,” Fowler coach Patty Feldpausch said. “To want something so bad and know you have to stay focused, and know that mistakes don’t matter because the next ball matters, that’s a big deal. We don’t have our individual names on the back of their warm-up shirts. Their name is not on there because that’s not important. It’s what we’re doing together, that’s what’s important. They believed it, and that’s why we’re sitting at this table being the champions.”
While they’d rather not wait another eight years, the Eagles know they could have sparked that same drive and belief in a group of girls watching Saturday.
“Making history and showing little kids that it’s possible, like it’s hard, but we did it and they can do it,” senior Myah Pohl said. “For the kids that we waved at, and they supported us – they can do it, too.”
Those kids witnessed an incredible team effort that led to a title, as the Eagles had 10 players record a dig, and five add at least seven kills to the attack.
At the heart of that were a trio of seniors, as Paige Thelen had 21 kills, Rachel Wirth had 21 digs and Neelah O’Rourke had 48 assists.
Fittingly, that trio combined for the final dig, assist and kill of the game, as Thelen pounded home an O’Rourke set, which came off a Wirth pass, for match point.
O’Rourke’s 48 assists are the most in a three-set Finals match since the move to divisions in 2018.
“She’s the only player I hugged – we got rushed around,” Feldpausch said with a laugh. “She just did a great job today. Our defense was giving her good balls to feed and our hitters did a great job against their big block. Neelah just kept her composure. She was amazing, she did great.”
Skylar Fowler was a big part of that attack as well, recording 10 kills, while Pohl had nine, Elizabeth Wirth had eight and Simon had seven. Selena Stump had 13 digs for the Eagles (36-8-2), with O’Rourke adding 12 and Thelen 11.
Most of the drama in the match came during the first set, as it took 30 points to settle it. While each point was tense, the final point featured a long back and forth that ended with a block from Simon and Stump.
“It’s tough to lose an opening set like that,” Mendon coach Kenneth Herbert said. “We’ve said it all season long, that we’re never out of a match. Even though we lost that first set, we felt from that moment we could still battle. And even to the last point, I felt that we were still battling. That’s all I can ask for out of these girls.”
Cienna Nightingale led the Mendon attack with 14 kills, adding 12 digs, while Gracie Shultz had nine kills and 19 digs. Karyssa Holtz had 24 assists for the Hornets (38-7-1), while Jadyn Samson had 20 digs.
“Good for them, they found our weaknesses and found ways to shut us down,” Schultz said. “We played as well as we could. I wouldn’t have done anything different. We gave everything on the court.”
PHOTOS (Top) Fowler’s Skylar Fowler (7) powers a kill past Mendon’s Gracie Schultz (7) and Sabrina Monroy (12) during Saturday’s Division 4 Final. (Middle) The Eagles’ Paige Thelen (13) connects as Karyssa Holtz (3) and Lashell Blair line up to block.