By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
BATTLE CREEK — Youth and experience have been two of the big keys to top-ranked Mendon volleyball’s run in the MHSAA Division 4 volleyball tournament.
After Thursday’s sweep of third-ranked Ubly in the state semifinals at Battle Creek’s Kellogg Arena, you could add a couple more descriptors to the list: perseverance and composure.
Up two sets to none against the Bearcats, Mendon rallied back on two separate occasions, from six-point and five-point deficits, in the third and ultimately final set to win by scores of 25-18, 25-22, and 27-25 and move on to the Division 4 state championship.
“They know they’re never out of a match,” Mendon head coach Kenny Herbert said. “Whether we’re six down, whether we’re 15 down, these guys know they can battle back, and they’re willing to give everything, you know, no matter what the score is, which is really awesome.”
Herbert said coming in, the match would be a battle, and that proved to be the case early on. The teams traded points back and forth early in the first set before a 7-2 run put the Hornets up 11-5. That run included kills from Gracie Schultz, Cienna Nightingale, and Brooke Gerth, as well as two kills by freshman Lashell Blair.
Ubly would rally back with a 7-2 run of their own to get it back to 13-12 in favor of the Hornets, but Mendon would go on a 9-1 run with two kills from Nightingale and Sabrina Monroy and a kill from Schultz, en route to taking home the first set 25-18. Herbert said his team’s defense was a big part of taking home the first set.
“I would say we are a defensive team, so getting points is about putting the ball away. And so as long as we’re managing the ball, I thought we really executed well in that first set, and that kind of helped us just build into winning that,” Herbert said.
Mendon would get out to a quick 6-2 lead to start the second set, with five of the points coming off kills from Schultz. Eventually, the lead would stay steady, getting to 16-12 thanks in part to four kills from Blair. However, Ubly would make its presence felt at that point, going on a 9-1 run to give the Bearcats a 21-17 lead. The Hornets would dig deep, and get some hitting errors from Ubly’s hitters, to score six straight points to make it 23-21, and would get two more hitting errors from the Bobcats to end the set 25-22 and take a 2-0 lead in the match.
Ubly would dominate the first part of the third set, going up 6-0 thanks to four Hornet errors, an ace, and a kill from Ubly star Waverly Hagen. Herbert called timeout at that point, and the Hornets responded, going on a 6-2 run to cut the deficit to 8-6. The Bearcats would keep Mendon at arm’s length for most of the set after that point, eventually getting to a 20-16 lead before Herbert called his final timeout of the set.
“Our key word, I think, has been composure. One of my other coaches has actually been keeping track of how we do outside of timeouts, and it’s kind of been amazing – we rebound well,” Herbert said on the timeout.
Rebound, they did. After a couple points by the Hornets, Ubly would get to two points away from forcing a fourth set after a kill by Sophi Heleski, 23-18. However, Mendon would rally back to tie the set at 24 thanks to two kills from Schultz, one from Karyssa Holtz, one from Nightingale, an ace by Gerth, and a hitting error by Ubly. Ubly would get to set point at 24-23, but Schultz would get two kills in a row to give Mendon its first lead of the set, 25-24. A kill from Heleski tied it back up at 25 all. Monroy would get a kill to put the Hornets up 26-25, and Holtz would finish off the match with an ace to send the Hornets to the finals.
“I assumed that I was going to have spots open in the first set but not in the third, and so I just adjusted. What I didn’t have open in the first set ended up being open in the third,” Schultz said about her third set, where she racked up eight of her team-leading 18 kills on the night.
Nightingale said coming back from the third-set deficit was a big accomplishment.
“It was huge, because we didn’t want to play more than we had to play. We wanted to get it done as early as we can,” Nightingale said. “After that timeout, I think we dug deep a lot more than we had to in the first two sets, and that also shows how much grit and fight and willingness we have to keep playing.”
Herbert praised his team’s serve-receive, giving it a grade of “10 out of 10” on the afternoon. He also observed his team passed the ball well off of first contact, which can help a team get into its offense.
Along with her team-leading 18 kills, Schultz had two aces and 14 digs on the afternoon for the Hornets. Blair had 10 kills, a dig, a solo block and three block assists. Gerth and Nightingale had six kills each, while Gerth added four digs and a block assist and Nightingale pitched in 15 digs, an ace, an assist, and two block assists. Monroy had four kills and two block assists, and Holtz had two kills, 40 assists, six digs, two aces and four block assists. Jadyn Samson had an ace, an assist, and a team-high 23 digs. Graye Lukeman had 10 digs, and Michelle Gomez Sanchez had an ace and a dig.
With the win, Mendon will, fittingly, face the second-ranked team in the state in the state finals, Fowler, which begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 22 at Kellogg Arena. The Eagles defeated fourth-ranked Crystal Falls Forest Park in a nail-biting five-set victory in the semifinal prior to the Mendon/Ubly game, winning 26-24, 30-28, 20-25, 19-25, and 15-8.
Saturday’s state championship match will be the first appearance in the finals for the Hornets in volleyball since 2019, but the pressure of the situation is not fazing the Hornets’ players, many of which were part of the state championship softball team back in June. While knowing it will be a tough matchup, they said they were excited about the team’s potential to win it all in another sport.
“I think we’re used to the pressure now,” Samson said. “it’s like, yeah, we’re playing in the state championship, but we’ve already done that. What is there to lose at this point? We’re just going to go out there and play our game no matter what.”
Herbert said he’s looking forward to the finals match.
“It’s going to be the biggest match of the season, it’s the state finals,” Herbert said. “We got to watch them a little bit today, and we know where they’re strong, we know where we feel like we can attack, and we’re going to go execute that tomorrow in practice and be ready to go on Saturday.”
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
