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High 5s: 11/14/12

November 19, 2012

All three of this week's honorees have achieved some sort of first-time stardom this fall, either individually or as a team. And both Carli Snyder and Alex Grace will be back next fall to continue building on these accomplishments. 

Carli Snyder
Macomb Dakota junior
Volleyball

(UPDATED 11/19) Snyder, a 6-foot-1 outside hitter, was an all-stater her first two seasons of high school. But she will be remembered even more for leading Macomb Dakota this fall to its first MHSAA championship in any girls sport. The Cougars defeated Temperance Bedford in three games in Saturday's Class A Final at Kellogg Arena. Snyder unofficially finished this season with 913 kills, good for seventh in the MHSAA record book since the beginning of the rally scoring era in 2004-05. Her 31 kills against Bedford were third-most for a Final during that time. Snyder already has committed to sign with the University of Florida next year. She likely will be among frontrunners for next fall's Miss Volleyball award. 

Title talk: "We wanted this thing so bad. Every girl on this team wanted it so badly. Megan (Manierski) was setting the ball perfectly. She made it very easy to get kills. ... Just talking about this moment, this gym, it makes you just want to play harder than you ever have."

Winning recipe: "We've been a competitive team in practice and in games all year, so I think that helped us at that moment (in three close Finals games) when we just didn't want to lose. We refused to lose. ... We support each other no matter what. And we hustled so hard."

Shake it up: "We have some secret handshakes with other people, but mine are very complex. I don't know how we went about that. Megan and mine is from "Parent Trap," and then Megan Downey and mine, we just made it up at team dinner. We make it a bit more complex than it needs to be, but it's fun. And it's a great thing to calm us down for a game when we've played a bad one before."

Had to be a Gator: "I like warm weather. I love the coaches. I actually called Florida for my recruiting phone call because I was kinda bored one day at home and I was like, 'I got a letter from them.' I fell in love with the coaching staff, and I told my mom that I needed to go on a visit down there. It's incredible, and when I went down there I was even more in love. Even on the phone, I knew this is where I would end up. It's just that feeling. You know when you get that feeling, and it's incredible."

Click to read more.

Alex Grace
Saginaw Swan Valley sophomore
Football

The Vikings' leading rusher is also one of the leading rushers in the state this season heading into Saturday's Division 4 Semifinal against Detroit Country Day. Grace has gained 2,091 yards plus run for 27 touchdowns, and needs only 109 yards and three more scores to make the MHSAA record book in both categories. He ran for 182 yards and three scores in the Vikings' Regional Final win over Croswell-Lexington. Grace took over as Swan Valley's running back this season after the graduation of his brother Johnathan, who rushed for 1,790 yards last season and now plays at Michigan Tech. Both brothers ran on Swan Valley's 400-meter relay that finished runner-up at the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Track and Field Final in the spring. Alex is 6-0 and 185 pounds and runs the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds.

I'd like to run like: "Even my brother. I like to look at myself as close to him. Professionally, (Minnesota Vikings back) Adrian Peterson. He's a tough runner, fast. He's strong."

Underdogs again: "The last game against Croswell, they were the No. 2 team and we were predicted to lose. But we came back and beat them. I use that underdog feeling to work harder each day."

Best brotherly advice: "Work hard, and if there are doubters, don't let them get you down."

Science and math: (My favorite classes are) biology and economics. They just come easy to me. I enjoy it."

Click to read more. 

Flint Beecher football

The Buccaneers, coached by former Michigan State and NFL standout Courtney Hawkins, were one of the final teams selected for the playoffs, at 5-4 after a 3-4 start. But Beecher advanced to this week's Division 7 Semifinal against Detroit Loyola by eliminating reigning champion Saginaw Nouvel, 19-15, in last week's Regional championship game. Beecher, now 8-4, has made the playoffs six straight years. The first of that run came in Hawkins' second as coach and after 12 straight losing seasons. 

Click to read more. 

Previous 2012-13 honorees:

Saline's Madison Bellus, right, slides toward the plate as the ball bounces away during her team's Division 1 Semifinal win.

Saline Earns 1st Trip to Finals, South Lyon's Bissett Makes Most of Semifinal Return

By Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com

June 12, 2025

EAST LANSING — Saline head coach Rebecca Suiter said her team hadn’t been in a situation where it had to rally during its last at-bats much this season.

But that didn’t stop her from feeling confident when the situation arose in Thursday’s Division 1 Semifinal against Hudsonville. 

“This team, they stay composed and they don’t get nervous,” Suiter said. “Before that inning, I told them, ‘Let’s fight. Let’s do what we do for the seniors. This is our last chance.’”

Saline made good in that last chance, scoring two runs in the top of the seventh inning and then holding off Hudsonville in the bottom of the inning to earn a 5-4 victory and a meeting with South Lyon in Saturday’s championship game. 

In the top of the seventh, Saline put runners on second and third base with one out and tied the game on a sacrifice fly to center field by sophomore Gracelyn Waldrop. 

Then junior Madison Bellus came to the plate, and after a lengthy battle, delivered an RBI triple to the wall in left field to make it 5-4 Hornets. 

“Lately, I’ve been working on outside pitches and fouling them off because that’s what I’ve struggled with sometimes,” Bellus said. “That at-bat, I was just focusing on my pitch, and when I got it, to swing all the way through. Yeah, I had to make something happen there.”

It will be the first title game appearance for Saline (38-3-2). 

The Hornets did a good job limiting a powerful Hudsonville offense that entered the Semifinal having scored a combined 26 runs over its previous three games. Abigail Curtis allowed four runs over five innings before junior Ainslee Tomaszewski pitched two scoreless innings to close it out.

“We watched a ton of film this week, and we knew their hitters were aggressive hitters,” Suiter said. “We knew they were going to chase outside. I talked to my pitcher and catcher and said, ‘Let’s start outside and see if we can chase.’”

Saline broke a scoreless tie in the top of the fourth inning, plating two runs on RBI singles by senior Ava Stripp and junior Jessica Phelps. 

Hudsonville responded in its half of the fourth, tying the game at 2-2 with a solo home run to right-center by freshman Kamryn Stankus and on a Saline infield error that plated another run. 

The Hornets regained the lead at 3-2 in the fifth inning, scoring on a Hudsonville throwing error. 

Hudsonville answered again, this time taking a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth on a 2-run home run with two outs by senior Ava Gardner, who hit a rope over the wall in left-center. 

Last year’s Division 1 champion, Hudsonville finished its season 35-4.

Click for the full box score.

South Lyon 1, Utica Ford 0 

This was quite a 180-degree turnaround for South Lyon junior pitcher Havanna Bissett.

Last year during a Division 1 Semifinal game, Bissett pitched on the rubber at Michigan State’s Secchia Stadium, but it was under unfortunate circumstances. 

She had to come in during the second inning for injured ace Ava Bradshaw, being thrown into the fire for five innings in what turned out to be a loss to Lake Orion. 

South Lyon's Havanna Bissett (4) makes her move toward the plate. ""But Bissett returned Thursday to the Secchia Stadium rubber for the first MHSAA Division 1 Semifinal against Utica Ford, this time as the team’s ace and fully comfortable after her experience last year. 

“I definitely felt a lot less nerves than last year,” Bissett said. “This year, I was ready to go and ready for anything. No matter what, I was throwing. So I was ready.”

Bissett certainly was, as she tossed a 2-hit shutout to lead South Lyon to a 1-0 win and its second appearance in a championship game over the last five seasons. 

Mixing a rise and a changeup beautifully all game, Bissett struck out four and walked only one. 

“It definitely gave her experience,” first-year head coach Jerry Shippe said of what Bissett experienced last year. “Knowing it was her game to pitch and she was going to do it from the start, it definitely gave her the confidence.”

Utica Ford head coach Matt Joseph said Bissett did a masterful job of keeping his lineup off-balance. 

“She was mixing in that changeup,” he said. “I thought we were anxious today and a little bit excited. We never really settled down. We sat out on that front foot and hit fly balls and popups.” 

South Lyon (32-7) got the only run it needed in the top of third inning on a 2-out RBI single by sophomore Isabella Bracali, who blooped a hit in front of the centerfielder. 

The Lions collected nine hits, with Izzy Nooe, Avery Bourlier and Bracali each producing two. 

Unranked when the playoffs started, South Lyon hopes to cap its improbable run by duplicating the Division 1 title it won in 2021. 

Ford ended its season at 30-11-1, but caught fire after starting 10-8 to make its first Semifinal trip since 2014.

“This team has come miles,” Joseph said. “At the start of the year, we were not a very good team, I will tell you that. I think our seniors started it with a lot of leadership, grit and determination. We got contributions from a lot of different players.” 

Click for the full box score.

PHOTOS (Top) Saline's Madison Bellus, right, slides toward the plate as the ball bounces away during her team's Division 1 Semifinal win. (Middle) South Lyon's Havanna Bissett (4) makes her move toward the plate.