Royal Oak Shrine claims first regional title in 13 years
The Royal Oak Shrine Knights defeated the host Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest Crusaders, 3-1, on Thursday to capture the MHSAA Division 3 Region 23 championship.
The regional title is the fifth in the program’s history and first since 2007.
Riding strong play at the net from senior Maria Cloutier and sophomore Margaret Jones, the Knights won the first two sets, 25-22, 25-17.
Temporarily staving off elimination, Lutheran Northwest prevailed in the third set, 25-17.
Jumping out to a 5- 0 lead in the final frame of the night, Royal Oak Shrine never looked back, cruising to a 25-15 victory.
Jones led the attack with 20 kills, while Cloutier totaled 10 and senior Mary Mulcahy chipped in eight.
Mya Minjares, another senior, shouldered much of the load defensively, racking up 24 digs on 28 attempts. A pair of sophomores, Norah Tisko and Kathryn Mulcahy, registered 19 and 18 kills, respectively.
“For a lot of girls at the school, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Knights head coach Annette DeMartino began.
“I didn’t need to give them any motivational speech, they came here ready to play. They knew that Lutheran Northwest is a good team, we actually lost to them in our first game this season and we lost to them in the first-round of districts last year, so, this was really great revenge for them.”
As DeMartino, who is in her third year at the helm of Shrine’s program, shared, Cloutier and Jones have been a couple of the team’s driving forces all year.
“Number 12 (Jones) has just been an asset for us all season, she’s been our go-to hitter for a lot of the season and Maria (Cloutier) has done a great job on the right side, as well.
“We’ve got Mary ( Mulcahy), who’s a six-rotation player, and then we just brought up Kathryn Mulcahy, as well, who has really stepped up and contributed to the team this year.
“The girls did a really good job. It was a little rough on defense, but I think they made up for it with their offense.”
Comprised of five seniors, four of both juniors and sophomores, and one freshman, the Knights’ roster is a steady blend of upperclasswomen ready to compete with the best in Division 3 this year and student- athletes who will be building blocks throughout the next couple of years.
“Every year, our goal is to win districts,” DeMartino said. “We came into this season with that same goal, I knew this group of girls was special, we have an awesome group of seniors who have just been an asset to this program, some of them for four years now.
“I told the girls, ‘It’s not just dis
tricts this year, you can do more than that.’ Every game, you could tell they just believed in themselves more, and they came out here and they did it. Now, we’re on to states.”
Shrine will hit the court in the state quarterfinals on Tuesday, Nov. 17 at Bendle High School in Burton against the Region 24 champions, the Saginaw Valley Lutheran Chargers.
While the Crusaders came up just short of their second-straight regional title, Heather Lower’s girls still had a successful season, winning their third consecutive district championship.
“We try to focus on our side, focus on our strengths, pushing the ball to our middles, first ball contact should be clean, top of the service line, stuff we tradition
ally have been very strong with,” Lower shared of the plan entering this match.
“I really thought we’d keep the pace with Shrine, and I thought we did, thought it was a very competitive overall match, thought we were pretty even. That was the strategy going in.”
The third set, where Lutheran Northwest raced out to a 6-2 lead and never relinquished it, was the team’s crispest portion of the night.
“I think they (the girls) finally settled down,” Lower said regarding the difference in their lone victorious set.
“We had a lot of newcomers to our starting lineup this year; with the strange year, not having as many games to work stuff out, with higher-level play, I feel like, coming into regionals, they were relying more on their adrenaline early on, instead of trusting their training.
“So, they finally got the idea, trust your training, let’s just do what we need to do like we normally do.”
This contest marked the final action of their prep career for six Crusader seniors, including Sabrina Gottschalk and Jena Maniaci, who earned first-team AllMichigan Independent Athletic Conference (MIAC) honors, and Ruthie Riethmeier, a second-team honoree.
“It’s been phenomenal,” Lower, who completed her 11th season as head coach, said of her seniors.
“I had a couple of them when they were sophomores and that was the first year we won districts, that was 2018. That was the first of our streak of district wins, which we hadn’t had for several years.
“As sophomores, being on that first district team, knowing what it feels like, what you have to do to accomplish the goals of hanging up banners, getting medals.
“It means a lot. I owe a lot of our success to, actually the year before I had those girls as sophomores, they set the tone. But these girls, the senior girls, they’ve been able to carry it and carry it and carry it.
“So, we have more of a legacy at this point. It’s not just, ‘ Lutheran Northwest is here, let’s just play.’ Now it’s more like, ‘Lutheran Northwest, wow. They’ve won three districts in a row; they’ve been to the regional finals three years in a row.’ A lot of that has to do with our senior class, for sure.”
Looking ahead to 2021, the next group of girls to continue carrying the torch, the Crusaders are set to return juniors Hailee and Hope Hale, Alex Hering, Lauren Prokes and Reegan Rohman, sophomore Stella Macavage and freshman Lorelai Gallo.