Seniors Cap Notre Dame Prep Careers with Championship Celebration
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 20, 2021
BATTLE CREEK – Josie Bloom and her Pontiac Notre Dame Prep senior classmates entered high school with the volleyball program on top.
They will leave having put it in the same place.
Led by a deep and talented senior class, the Irish defeated North Branch 25-17, 25-17, 25-12 on Saturday at Kellogg Arena to claim the MHSAA Division 2 Finals title.
“It’s awesome,” Bloom said. “We’ve had this goal since the beginning of the season, and it’s awesome to have that final feeling, and to go out with a bang.”
The title is the fourth for the Irish, and first since 2017, when the Class of 2022 was in the eighth grade. Notre Dame Prep has advanced to the Final Four in each of the past four seasons, and was a finalist in 2018. But the promise of this class was truly met Saturday as it capped off a remarkable 64-1 season by hoisting the Finals trophy.
“It’s so hard to do,” said Notre Dame Prep coach Betty Wroubel, who has coached all four Finals champions. “I don’t think people realize how hard it is to get this far and win. Anything can happen along the way. You need a little bit of luck, you need a lot of skill and you need a team that's going to persevere through adversity no matter what – injuries, officials calls or other teams that get hot against you – it doesn’t really matter, you have to be able to overcome that. I think this team’s mental toughness was awesome.”
The Irish, who are ranked fifth nationally and handed Division 1 champion Bloomfield Hills Marian its lone defeat, featured nine seniors. While standouts such as Bloom and Aly Borellis and Bianca Giglio deservedly get a lot of the credit, it was a late moment when reserve senior Leah Greif was inserted into the match and able to be on the court for the final points that garnered some of the loudest applause. She made it count with a perfect pass that led to a point.
“It’s awesome, because they work their butts off all season, too, along with all the starters,” Bloom said. “I think they definitely deserve a chance, and it’s awesome to see them succeed in a game like this.”
Bloom led the Notre Dame Prep defense with 20 digs, while Borellis led the attack with 17 kills and 13 assists. Giglio added 10 kills, while Margo Sudzina had 19 assists, and Elyssa Wallace had 17 digs.
While the Irish were senior-led, North Branch (46-9) was led mostly by its sophomore class.
The Broncos will graduate a single senior – Gracie Hyde – and the experience gained on the weekend is something coach Jim Fish believes will be of great value for the program as it also looks to get back to the top of Division 2. North Branch has won three titles itself, the latest coming in 2016.
“You can put it on the calendar; we will be back next year – we will be here,” Fish said. “They got a taste of it, we had a great weekend, we had a great time in this match. When the third game started, I told them, ‘Ladies, I’m having the time of my life and there’s nowhere else I’d rather be. So, let’s just enjoy this.’ Our 10 sophomores against their 10 seniors, that’s two years difference. We played OK; they’re just a very good team. I give them all the credit, they’ve earned it, and they’ve waited four years to get it.”
Adrienne Greschaw had 19 assists for North Branch, with Natasha Bickel (seven) and Kaela Chingwa (six) leading the team in kills. Hailey Green had 18 digs for the Broncos, and Alana Deshetsky added 15.
“I would love to play them at full strength – that's not an excuse,” Fish said. “My outside (Deshetsky) couldn’t jump, she has two bad knees. My defensive kid (Hyde) couldn’t move. The result might be the same, so I’m not taking anything away. We knew we were up against it, we knew they were skilled at every position and it was a tall task. We had a great night (in the Semifinal win against Lakewood), and that’s what we’re going to rest our head on. They want to be here next year. They’re already talking about it.”
PHOTOS (Top) Pontiac Notre Dame Prep celebrates its Division 2 championship Saturday night at Kellogg Arena. (Middle) The Fighting Irish’s Bianca Giglio (9) sends a kill attempt at a North Branch block including Natasha Bickel (15). (Photos by Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)
Mercy Stands Tall at Net, Makes Big Blocks Pay Off in Championship Win
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 22, 2025
BATTLE CREEK – Farmington Hills Mercy looked to be on its way to a sweep Saturday in the Division 1 Volleyball Final at Kellogg Arena.
So when Bloomfield Hills erased a nine-point deficit in the third set, extending the match and delaying the Silly String celebration, the Marlins were on the wrong side of a massive momentum swing.
They were also incredibly calm.
“I feel like our message was not to worry,” Mercy senior Ella Andrews said. “We were down in the Semifinals two sets and came back and reverse swept them, so I feel like our message was just to stay calm. We can trust ourselves. We’ve been working for this all season, we just have to rely on each other and feel confident in ourselves to get back and score those points to win the set.”
Mercy got back to its game in the fourth set, and put itself back on top of the state with a 25-18, 25-20, 23-25, 25-20 victory against Bloomfield Hills.
The win gives the Marlins their third Finals title and second in three years. And, for the second time since 2023, they doused their coach Loretta Vogel with water and Silly String.
“I’m going in there to talk to everybody in the locker room, and I just get drenched,” Vogel said. “It’s definitely becoming a custom here.”
Mercy entered the fourth Final in program history with a simple, yet difficult gameplan: Slow Bloomfield Hills star Kayla Nwabueze. The Harvard-bound outside hitter did manage a match-high 24 kills, but the Marlins’ long, talented front line made it as difficult on her as possible.
“Our plan was to shut down Kayla,” said Vogel, who puts Nwabueze among the best hitters she’s seen in her 49 years coaching. “Put big blocks up, make them change to something else. That worked for us. I thought the girls really got up there and put four hands in front of her. There was one time we triple-blocked. So, I think changing something up like that, giving her a different view, had an impact on her. For any hitter, that would have an impact.”
Nwabueze got some backup from sophomore Allison Stakoe, who had 20 kills and played a massive role in the third set comeback.
But Nwabueze admitted it was tough to try and navigate the Mercy blockers.
“I would say it was really frustrating,” she said. “I knew they were going to come out and try to stop me, so I just had the mentality of don’t let that happen. I feel like I got into a rut a couple times. That’s what they tried to do, to stop the player that caused the most damage, and it was smart on their part. I really tried hard to try to get past that block. It was a really big block, though.”
McKenzie and Ella Andrews led the way on that block, with Ella finishing the match with two solo blocks and five assists, and McKenzie tallying six block assists. They had a ton of help, too. Kaelyn Easton had five block assists, Saniya Tucker had four, and both Cree Hollier and Kate Kalczynski had two.
Mercy’s attack was just as varied.
Kalczynski led the way with 16 kills, including the final one on match point, while Ella Andrews had 13, Hollier had 12 and McKenzie Andrews had seven.
That distribution was thanks to their freshman setter Easton, who had 43 assists in the Final and more than 100 over the final two matches.
“Definitely just seeing open spots where the blockers were,” Easton said. “I know in this game, the middles were open a lot, were scoring a lot, especially in the last set, and the coaches were just like, ‘Get them the ball. Just get them the ball and make them score.’ Also, the outsides, they opened up the middles a lot, so really, really appreciative to all of them. I could just not do it without the passes. The passes were really, really good this weekend.”
Maya Zarow led Mercy (42-5-3) with 24 digs, while Kalczynski had 12 and Easton 11.
Bloomfield Hills (43-8-1) setter Brynn Wilcox finished the day with 42 assists. Alyssa Moir led the defense with 20 digs, while Stakoe added 14, Nwabueze had 13 and Julia Colosimo had 10.
This weekend marked the first time the Black Hawks had advanced to the Semifinals.
“I’m just really proud of our team,” Wilcox said. “Even though we may have faced some ups and downs throughout the season, we kind of leaned on each other. It’s probably one of the greatest – I’ve had the most fun of my life.”
PHOTOS (Top) Farmington Hills Mercy players raise their championship trophy Saturday afternoon at Kellogg Arena. (Middle) Mercy’s Cree Hollier (22) attempts a kill as Bloomfield Hills’ Suri Ewing (13) and Charlotte Elowsky elevate to try and block it.