Marian gets gut check, responds to repeat as D1 champs
BATTLE CREEK » It’s been some time since the Marian volleyball team actually felt threatened in a match.
The Mustangs had just one loss on their 2021 record, which came back in September, and they hadn’t found themselves in doubt to lose throughout their postseason run.
In Saturday’s Division 1 final, third-ranked Skyline gave the top-ranked Mustangs a gutcheck moment.
After splitting the first two sets, Skyline was on a run that cut Marian’s lead to 16-14 in the third set. Mustang coach Mayssa Cook called timeout to rally her squad. From there, Marian found shifted into overdrive.
The Mustangs would pull away in the third set for a 2518 win and then grind out the fourth for a 25-18, 22-25, 25-18, 25-19 victory over the Eagles to repeat as D1 state champions.
“Skyline played an incredible game, so kudos to them, we just kicked it into another gear,” Miss Volleyball winner Ava Brizard said of her team’s win. “In that third set we just turned around our energy. Every time we won a point, our huddles just got tighter and tighter. We were just getting so pumped up.”
The fourth set would be tight throughout as well, but the Mustangs scored the final five points of the match to lock up the title, with senior middle Sarah Sylvester closing things out with a kill.
“It was so amazing, just being able to take the last point in the match and get it for my team,” she said.
Marian showed the dominance it has all postseason in the opening set, as the Mustangs jumped out to a 14-4 lead. Brizard had five kills in the opening rally
Skyline started to find its footing in the late stages of the first set and then carried that over in the second set by leading most of the way. The Eagles’ passing and aggressive serving kept Marian from being able to run their fast offense.
“I thought Skyline did an awesome job of bringing their ‘A’ game. They were, for a lot of that match, winning the serve and serve receive game,” Marian coach Mayssa Cook said. “In our huddles a lot of talk was that whoever wins the serve and serve receive game will win this set or will win this match. We went back to our game — serving tougher, passing better. We were able to speed up our offense again, which we are very effective when we are able to.”
Marian still hit .287 as a team with Brizard leading the offense with 25 kills. Sophie Treder added nine kills while Ella Schomer had six and Sylvester and Janiah Jones each had five.
Ava Sarafa tallied 44 assists for the Mustangs and had 12 digs, while Brizard had 13 digs and Lauren Heming recorded 12.
Murray led Skyline with 25 kills and 14 digs while Cari Bohm had 11 kills, Lauren Lee tallied 46 assists, and Jordan
Hall had 21 digs.
Marian has now repeated as state champions for the second time. The Mustangs won the Class A championship in both 2009 and 2010 prior to repeating in the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
The Mustangs complete the 2021 season with a 53-1 record, with the lone loss coming against Notre Dame Prep in a match where Marian was without Sylvester. All season, Marian dropped a total of five sets. Some publications have the Mustangs among the best prep teams in the nation, and Cook agrees.
“I wouldn’t mind a national championship,” Cook said with a smile. “Of course, you can’t play in a real tournament, but I do believe that we are up there in the top one or two for sure.”