#TBT: MHSAA Hosts 1st Volleyball Finals
September 7, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Girls volleyball has seen its share of changes over more than four decades as an MHSAA sport – its season moving from winter to fall and the addition to rally scoring in 2005-06 surely would be counted as the most significant.
Along the way, it has become the most popular high school girls sport in the state in terms of participation, with more than 19,000 athletes taking part last season.
The legacy will continue later this season when the MHSAA crowns its 42nd class of champions in the sport. Here’s a look back at the first championship day in 1976, written by MHSAA historian Ron Pesch for a “Finals Flashbacks” published in the 2006 MHSAA Finals program:
The sport of volleyball was invented in 1895 at Springfield College in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Added to the Olympics in 1964, the international amateur athletic event exposed the power game to a broad audience.
In the winter of 1976, the MHSAA added volleyball to the array of championships sponsored by the organization. A total of 458 teams participated in the first volleyball tournament. Broken into three classifications, Class A contests were played on the campus of Schoolcraft College in Livonia, while Class B games were held at Read Field House at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. Bay City’s Delta College played host to the Class C-D tournament.
Eight teams qualified for the finals in each classification. Quarterfinal, Semifinal and Final matches were played on the same day, made possible because games were timed during that first year.
Dearborn Fordson had won a non-MHSAA tournament in 1975, and led by tri-captains Lynn March, June Scott and Joan Ferguson, the Tractors earned the MHSAA’s first Class A title by disposing of Grosse Pointe North in the Semifinals, 15-6, 15-4. Fordson then knocked off previously unbeaten Ferndale in the Final, 15-13, 15-5 for the crown.
Parchment carried a nine-player roster, including five seniors, into the first Class B tournament. The Panthers thumped Sturgis, 15-0, 15-8 in the Semifinals, then downed Tecumseh, 15-8, 15-11, to finish the year with a 30-3 record.
Undefeated Flint Holy Rosary, led by coach Jo Lake, rolled to the 1976 Class C-D crown with a 14-5, 13-8 win over Kalamazoo Christian in the Final. The team snagged the Class D title the following year as well, establishing a winning streak of 92 straight matches.
PHOTO: Michigan high school volleyball teams compete during the early days of the sport in this state. (MHSAA file photo.)
Forest Park Returns to Championship Week Seeking to Continue 2-Month Winning Streak
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
November 18, 2025
L’ANSE — This has been quite a ride for the Crystal Falls Forest Park volleyball team.
The Trojans improved to 41-1 on Thursday, defeating Ishpeming 25-13, 25-18, 25-14 in a Division 4 Regional championship match.
“I didn’t imagine we would win 41 matches this season.” Forest Park coach Bobbie Jo Anderson said. “That’s beyond our expectations, although the girls worked hard.”
The Trojans will continue their postseason journey tonight when they meet Atlanta (36-1-2) in Quarterfinal match at 6 p.m. in Manistique.
The Regional championship was the third in four years for the Trojans, who fell to Hancock in straight sets in last year’s Regional Final at Baraga. Forest Park met Hancock in last week’s Regional Semifinal, this time winning 26-24, 25-23, 25-21.
“We didn’t like the outcome last year,” Trojans senior Ava Fischer said. “It’s absolutely a relief to win the Regional this year. We came into this season knowing we had a real good team. I’m so excited.”
Forest Park’s only loss took place Aug. 23 during a season-opening tournament in Mount Pleasant, where it dropped a 2-1 decision in the semifinals to Division 3 Saginaw Valley Lutheran, a team it had beaten in pool play earlier that day. Valley Lutheran also advanced to tonight’s Quarterfinals.
The Trojans had reached the Division 4 Semifinals twice in a row before last year’s earlier exit, and just missed reaching the 2023 championship match in falling to Leland in five sets at Battle Creek’s Kellogg Arena.
“After losing to Hancock last year, we knew we were going to come back stronger,” junior Tessa Bartoszek said. “We did morning workouts and open gyms during the summer. It’s awesome to be moving on.”
Bartoszek produced a key defensive play during the second set against Ishpeming, which featured Baylor recruit Mya Hemmer and finished this fall 23-6-2. The Hematites were trailing 14-11 when it appeared the ball was going to land on Forest Park’s side of the net. Bartoszek somehow prevented that from happening, dug up the ball and returned it to Ishpeming’s side, enabling the Trojans to go up 15-11 on a defensive error.
A seven-point service run by sophomore Harper Anderson also helped the Trojans get going in the opener.
“That was huge,” Coach Anderson said. “Volleyball is a game of momentum, and you want to keep that on your side.
“The first set definitely set the tone. The girls were able to relax a little more after winning that one.”
The Trojans have won their own invitational, ‘The Rock’ Invite at Gladstone, Escanaba Invitational and defeated Great Northern Conference champion Kingsford, Marquette and Calumet in a quadrangular at Kingsford during the regular season.
Forest Park also captured the Skyline Central Conference title prior to taking District and Regional championships.
Fischer is the team’s leading hitter with 467 kills this season, with five more Trojans totaling at least 100. Senior Elsie Williams and junior Vienna Price share setting duties, and Williams also is second on the team with 196 kills to go with her 502 assists. Fischer also leads the team with 351 digs, and Anderson has a team-high 89 aces.
Fischer and Williams are the team’s only seniors. Right behind Williams in kills is freshman Josie Anderson, one of three underclassmen in the primary playing group.
John Vrancic has covered high school sports in the Upper Peninsula since joining the Escanaba Daily Press staff in 1985. He is known most prominently across the peninsula for his extensive coverage of cross country and track & field that frequently appears in newspapers from the Wisconsin border to Lake Huron. He received the James Trethewey Award for Distinguished Service in 2015 from the Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.
PHOTO The Crystal Falls Forest Park girls volleyball team takes a photo after winning its District championship against Wakefield-Marenisco on Nov. 6. (Photo courtesy of the Forest Park school district.)