Roles Reverse as North Branch Wins Rematch
November 22, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
BATTLE CREEK – Saturday’s final MHSAA Volleyball Final felt familiar – and not just because North Branch and Lake Odessa Lakewood wore nearly identical uniforms.
It wasn’t long ago that the Class B powers met to finish another season, and a Lakewood team filled with seniors swept the then-much younger Broncos to claim the 2012 title.
This championship rematch turned into a role reversal.
North Branch, with four major contributors who played on the losing side last time, swept Lakewood 25-19, 25-15, 25-23 to claim the program’s second MHSAA championship and first since 2009.
“We went in wanting revenge. Two years ago … we were devastated,” said North Branch senior Laura Willson, a key contributor on the 2012 team. “It feels great to do to them what they did to us.”
Willson was her team’s second-leading hitter with 10 kills in the 2012 Final. She took nearly half of her team’s attempts Saturday and connected on 22 kills.
Seniors Calla McNulty, Victoria Severance and Mady Ruhlman also saw time in the championship game two years ago and led the Broncos in a statistical category this time – McNulty with three aces, Ruhlman with 14 digs and Severance with four blocks.
There were lessons to be learned after the 2012 Final loss – Willson said the Broncos came to understand the importance of fighting for every point and also developed a closer bond than when she was a sophomore and teammates “picked at each other a bit.”
“They had some heartbreak two years ago, and it’s all worth it with what happened today,” North Branch coach Jim Fish said. “I knew we were the better team today. Two years ago, we knew they were the better team. They had four four-year starters, and we were up against it.”
“We had more size, more experience and more power than they did two years ago,” Lakewood coach Kellie Rowland agreed. “And they had it on us today.”
Lakewood indeed had some of the look of North Branch 2012. Although three Vikings did also see time in that previous championship matchup, only two seniors were part of this season’s main playing group.
Those seniors, Vanessa Reynhout and Gracie Shellenbarger, led Lakewood with seven kills apiece, and Shellenbarger also had 10 digs.
The Vikings had an especially difficult time countering the 6-foot-1 Willson, which wasn’t helped by not having freshman middle Alivia Benedict, who left Thursday’s Semifinal with an injury.
Lakewood did open the first set by taking a 7-3 lead as North Branch piled up an uncharacteristic five errors early. But the Broncos came back to stay at 14-13 and led for good in the second set beginning at 4-3.
The Vikings led the third set 21-19 before North Branch rattled off three straight points on the way to finishing the match.
Sophomore Madee Miner had 39 assists for the Broncos (61-7-4), which entered the postseason ranked No. 2 and defeated No. 1 Pontiac Notre Dame in the Semifinal.
Sophomore Gabie Shellenbarger had 26 assists for the Vikings, who finished 51-9 after entering the playoffs ranked No. 5 and should return 10 of their 15 players for the next two seasons.
“Like I told them, they could’ve let the Regional slip through their hands, the Quarterfinal slip, the Semifinal slip. And they didn’t,” Rowland said. “I told the young ones, look at it, feel it, know how bad it feels so you want to get back and win it all.”
PHOTOS: (Top) North Branch players raise their championship trophy after Saturday’s Class B Final. (Middle) Lakewood’s Vanessa Reynhout drives a kill into a North Branch block including Laura Willson (10). (Click for action photos and team photos from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS:
SHE'S A FRESHMAN! - Lake Odessa Lakewood's Lisa Hewitt comes up with the block in the first set against North Branch.
WILLSON FIRES DOWN THE MIDDLE - A key play at the end of the third set was this spike by Laura Willson which put North Branch at match point.
Watch the entire match and order DVDs by Clicking Here.
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Field Hockey Debut, Tennis Finals Change Among Most Notable as Fall Practices Set to Begin
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 8, 2025
The addition of girls field hockey as a sponsored postseason championship sport and a revised schedule for Lower Peninsula Boys Tennis Finals are the most significant changes to fall sports as practices are set to begin Monday, Aug. 11, for an anticipated 100,000 high school athletes at Michigan High School Athletic Association member schools.
The fall season includes the most played sports for both boys and girls; 36,210 football players and 19,679 girls volleyball players competed during the Fall 2024 season. Teams in those sports will be joined by competitors in girls and boys cross country, field hockey, Lower Peninsula girls golf, boys soccer, Lower Peninsula girls swimming & diving, Upper Peninsula girls tennis and Lower Peninsula boys tennis in beginning practice next week. Competition begins Aug. 15 for cross country, field hockey, golf, soccer and tennis, Aug. 20 for swimming & diving and volleyball, and Aug. 28 for varsity football.
Field hockey is one of two sports set to make its debut with MHSAA sponsorship during the 2025-26 school year; boys volleyball will play its first season with MHSAA sponsorship in the spring.
There are 37 varsity teams expected to play during the inaugural field hockey season. There will be one playoff division, with the first MHSAA Regionals in this sport beginning Oct. 8 and the first championship awarded Oct. 25.
To conclude their season, Lower Peninsula boys tennis teams will begin a pilot program showcasing Finals for all four divisions at the same location – Midland Tennis Center – over a two-week period. Division 4 will begin play with its two-day event Oct. 15-16, followed by Division 1 on Oct. 17-18, Division 2 on Oct. 22-23 and Division 3 played Oct. 24-25.
Also in Lower Peninsula boys tennis, and girls in the spring, a Finals qualification change will allow for teams that finish third at their Regionals to advance to the season-ending tournament as well, but only in postseason divisions where there are six Regionals – which will be all four boys divisions this fall.
The 11-Player Football Finals at Ford Field will be played this fall over a three-day period, with Division 8, 4, 6 and 2 games on Friday, Nov. 28, and Division 7, 3, 5 and 1 games played Sunday, Nov. 30, to accommodate Michigan State’s game against Maryland on Nov. 29 at Ford Field.
Two more changes affecting football playoffs will be noticeable this fall. For the first time, 8-Player Semifinals will be played at neutral sites; previously the team with the highest playoff-point average continued to host during that round. Also, teams that forfeit games will no longer receive playoff-point average strength-of-schedule bonus points from those opponents to which they forfeited.
A pair of changes in boys soccer this fall will address sportsmanship. The first allows game officials to take action against a team’s head coach in addition to any cautions or ejections issues to players and personnel in that team’s bench area – making the head coach more accountable for behavior on the sideline. The second change allows for only the team captain to speak with an official during the breaks between periods (halftime and during overtime), unless another coach, player, etc., is summoned by the official – with the penalty a yellow card to the offending individual.
A few more game-action rules changes will be quickly noticeable to participants and spectators.
- In volleyball, multiple contacts by one player attempting to play the ball will now be allowed on second contact if the next contact is by a teammate on the same side of the net.
- In swimming & diving, backstroke ledges will be permitted in pools that maintain a 6-foot water depth. If used in competition, identical ledges must be provided by the host team for all lanes, although individual swimmers are not required to use them.
- Also in swimming & diving – during relay exchanges – second, third and fourth swimmers must have one foot stationary at the front edge of the deck. The remainder of their bodies may be in motion prior to the finish of the incoming swimmer.
- In football, when a forward fumble goes out of bounds, the ball will now be spotted where the fumble occurred instead of where the ball crossed the sideline.
The 2025 Fall campaign culminates with postseason tournaments beginning with the Upper Peninsula Girls Tennis Finals during the week of Sept. 29 and wrapping up with the 11-Player Football Finals on Nov. 28 and 30. Here is a complete list of fall tournament dates:
Cross Country
U.P. Finals – Oct. 18
L.P. Regionals – Oct. 24 or 25
L.P. Finals – Nov. 1
Field Hockey
Regionals – Oct. 8-21
Semifinals – Oct. 22 or 23
Final – Oct. 25
11-Player Football
Selection Sunday – Oct. 26
District Semifinals – Oct. 31 or Nov. 1
District Finals – Nov. 7 or 8
Regional Finals – Nov. 14 or 15
Semifinals – Nov. 22
Finals – Nov. 28 and 30
8-Player Football
Selection Sunday – Oct. 26
Regional Semifinals – Oct. 31 or Nov. 1
Regional Finals – Nov. 7 or 8
Semifinals – Nov. 15
Finals – Nov. 22
L.P. Girls Golf
Regionals – Oct. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, or 11
Finals – Oct. 17-18
Boys Soccer
Districts – Oct. 8-18
Regionals – Oct. 21-25
Semifinals – Oct. 29
Finals – Nov. 1
L.P. Girls Swimming & Diving
Diving Regionals – Nov. 13
Swimming/Diving Finals – Nov. 21-22
Tennis
U.P. Girls Finals – Oct. 1, 2, 3, or 4
L.P. Boys Regionals – Oct. 8, 9, 10, or 11
L.P. Boys Finals – Oct. 15-16 (Division 4), Oct. 17-18 (Division 1), Oct 22-23 (Division 2), and Oct. 24-25 (Division 3)
Girls Volleyball
Districts – Nov. 3-8
Regionals – Nov. 11 & 13
Quarterfinals – Nov. 18
Semifinals – Nov. 20-21
Finals – Nov. 22
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.