Visser Relishing Rockford Run In Return After Missed Season
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
November 20, 2024
ROCKFORD – The Rockford volleyball team is in the midst of an impressive postseason run, and just two wins away from a Division 1 championship.
Senior Layla Visser is beyond grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it after an injury derailed her junior season.
Visser missed it entirely after having shoulder surgery. She didn’t return to the court until midway through this fall, but has been a major contributor in the team’s success as the Rams enter Thursday’s Division 1 Semifinal against Fenton (30-2) at Battle Creek’s Kellogg Arena.
“It’s amazing to be back,” Visser said. “I love volleyball more now than I ever have.”
Visser started feeling pain in her right shoulder following her sophomore season. Doctors discovered that she had a torn labrum, rotator cuff and biceps tendon.
Being away from the sport she loves took its toll.
“It was a lot harder than I expected it to be, but it really pushed me,” Visser said. “It was really emotionally and mentally hard, unlike anything I’ve ever been through because volleyball is my passion and my identity. So not being able to play or be a part of that was hard.
“All of these girls are really special to me, and I’ve been playing with them for a long time now. To finally be able to be on the court again with them and playing at a high level feels really good and special.”
Rockford junior Liv Hosford is thrilled to have her friend and teammate back on the court, helping the Rams in their pursuit of the program’s first Finals title since 2011.
“It’s definitely huge to have her back, and even when she wasn't playing she was a huge part of our team with her positivity on the bench and keeping the energy up and giving us extra motivation sometimes when we didn't have any,” Hosford said. “She’s been a huge part of our team and our success with her wall of a block, and her hits are becoming so good.”
Rams coach Kelly Delacher said Visser has been a welcome addition to a team abounding with veteran experience and young talent.
“She didn’t play at all last year and the first month of this season, so it was incredible to get her back,” he said. “We converted her to a middle hitter, which she has never played before, but she has been great as far as leadership and blocking and giving us some offense out of the middle.”
Rockford (39-9), which has dropped only two sets during the MHSAA Tournament, swept Traverse City Central 3-0 in a Division 1 Quarterfinal.
A grueling and lengthy third set saw the Rams prevail, 36-34.
“That was the longest single set I’ve been a part of, but they were a very solid team with some scary hitters and our kids came out and were focused from point one,” Delacher said. “We did a good job of exploiting a couple of matchups, and our outside hitter Mallory Wandel had a big night with 27 kills.”
Depth and talent, combined with a tight-knit bond, have been staples for the Rams.
“I knew right from the beginning that we had something special,” Delacher said. “We had a great mix of seniors with some young talented players, and I give a lot of credit to our captains and our seniors for creating a great chemistry and bond where they are not worried about their individual goals. They just want to win and support each other in the process.”
Hosford echoed those sentiments:
“One of the biggest things is our team chemistry,” she said. “I feel like we are a big family, and we’ve clicked from the first practice and we've continued to build that. We just have so much trust in each other, and we are all working toward the same goal.
The Rams, who won the Ottawa-Kent Conference Red title this year, have appeared in the Finals twice since that championship run in 2011. They were Division 1 runners-up in 2018 after a loss to Lake Orion, and Class A runner-up in 2016 after falling to Novi.
“There are very good teams left in Fenton, which has had a great season with only a couple of losses, and Northville and Marian on the other side of the bracket are very good teams,” Delacher said. “It’s going to take us playing our best volleyball, and I believe our kids our starting to believe that. We’ve matched up against four straight ranked opponents, and we’ve played pretty well so I feel like our confidence is pretty high. We feel like we have as good a chance as anybody.”
Dean Holzwarth has covered primarily high school sports for Grand Rapids-based WOOD-TV for five years after serving at the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years along with shorter stints at the Ionia Sentinel and WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Rockford celebrates its Quarterfinal win over Traverse City Central on Tuesday at Big Rapids High School. (Middle) Layla Visser (1) winds up for a kill attempt with Izzie Delacher setting and Liz Hosford (14) also approaching the net. (Photos by Miles Postema.)
Kingsley Scores Final Point of 2025 Season to Clinch Program's 1st Finals Title
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 22, 2025
BATTLE CREEK – For a set and a half Saturday, it was clear Kalamazoo Christian was the team with a championship experience edge in the Division 3 Volleyball Final against Kingsley.
The Comets were playing at Kellogg Arena for the fourth straight year, having won a title in 2023, finished runner-up in 2022 and reached the Semifinals as well in 2024.
But apparently that set and a half was all the time Kingsley needed to become comfortable in the moment, as the Stags rallied for a 22-25, 26-24, 25-15, 25-12 victory, claiming the program’s first Finals title.
“We got hammered the first game, just didn’t play well,” Kingsley coach Dave Hall said. “Just error after error, tight, and just out of nowhere they find it in them. In the second set we were down again, set point, and somehow they find a way to score a point and tie it. We’ve been in 25 of those this year, and have probably won 23 of them. They just don’t get rattled. I’m chewing my fingernails off and can’t look half the time, and they just play volleyball. It’s amazing.”
Hall’s illustrious career has spanned nearly three decades at Kingsley, as he’s won 1,230 matches in his 27 years with the program.
It was the second time he had taken a team to the final day of the season, with the previous for the Class C Final in 2004.
“It’s surreal,” he said. “I just told somebody that it’s probably going to be tomorrow before I realize what just happened. We’re just enjoying the win right now. … My daughter was just telling me she was 7 years old last time we were here. She’s 28 now, married. It’s awesome. I don’t even know if I have words right now to describe the feeling.
“Honestly, these kids have worked so hard. They got knocked out in the Regional Final in four sets (a year ago), and their goal was to come back and go further. Our motto has been one more day, one more day, just try to get to the end of the season. I said, ‘We’re going to play the last point of the volleyball season in the state of Michigan today, and it’s going to be match point and we’re going to win this thing.’ Thank goodness it worked out that way.”
It didn’t look that way early, as Kalamazoo Christian led from 4-3 on in the first set to take early control of the match. It then weathered a fast Kingsley start to the second before going up 24-22 with a chance to take complete command.
“I think we were playing really loose,” Comets coach Carlie Southland said. “Having a lot of fun and playing really disciplined in our passing, blocking and serving.”
Kingsley (57-4-1) would win the next four points, however, and never let go of the momentum, as Kalamazoo Christian (30-12-3) would never have another lead in the match.
“I think we were just kind of nervous at the start,” Kingsley senior setter Sarah Wooer said. “Then in the second set we realized that we were really in it, we just had to play hard. Once we realized that we were doing well and we could win, we just kept playing hard and we were able to pull it off.”
The lone glimmer of hope for Kalamazoo Christian came late in the third set, when it cut a 15-7 Kingsley lead down to 16-11. But a wild rally that included diving saves from Wooer, Isabelle Seitz and Aizlyn McKinley ended with a Jenna Middleton kill, and Kingsley rolled from there.
The play was a great representation of how the Stags played throughout much of the match.
“I think we all just read the hitters really well,” Wooer said. “We knew they had really good hitters, and we were able to adjust our block really well. Our blockers played a big part in it. Our defense played well, and we were able to just keep the ball off the floor, that’s all we try to do.”
Seitz led Kingsley with 28 digs, while Aizlyn McKinley had 22, Middleton had 15 and Ariyah McKinley had 14.
Wooer finished with 48 assists on the day, with Middleton coming in at 19 kills, Aizlyn McKinley at 15 and Delaney Case at 12.
Elliana VanDusen led the Comets with 18 kills, while Eliana Keller had 13. Lily Manion finished with 28 digs for Kalamazoo Christian, Ellory Zuiderveen had 11, and Reagan Zuiderveen had 36 assists.
PHOTOS (Top) Kingsley’s Sarah Wooer (6) sets for teammate Jenna Middleton (11) on Saturday as Kalamazoo Christian’s Elliana VanDusen prepares to defend. (Middle) Kingsley’s Aizlyn McKinley sends a kill attempt toward the net and Kalamazoo Christian blockers Ashlyn Triemstra (14) and Lydia Boley (7).