CENTREVILLE — Both the Bronson and Mendon volleyball teams will play for separate regional championships on Thursday, Nov. 13. Each team won their respective regional semifinal matchups on Tuesday evening.
Bronson faces off with Kalamazoo Christian
Bronson got the best of Constantine in Centreville on Tuesday. The Vikings dropped the opening set of the night as Constantine controlled its way to a 25-16 victory.
Bronson then won the remaining three at 25-18, 25-17 and 25-15.
“We’re happy we get another day together. We will come back focused on Thursday, we’ve had a lot of things going on,” Bronson coach Jean LaClair said. “Kalamazoo Christian is a good team, so we need to be ready.”
Constantine coach Tiffany Lewis said she was proud of her team’s efforts. The Falcons won the school’s first district title since 2004 this year and have accomplished some big things as a team.
“These girls had a crazy, successful season. We had a lot of people talking about it being a rebuilding year, but we came together well as a group and did some big things,” Lewis said following the match. “I’m beyond proud of them as a whole.”
Jaelyn Buglione led Constantine with 14 kills while Jaedyn Herlein scored 10 and Raeann Michalek scored six. Herlein also recorded three blocks while Anndee Evans had a team-high 20 digs. Buglione added 15 digs and Kate Jones logged 14. Evans passed out 28 assists.
“They kept coming at us,” Lewis said of Bronson. “But I had phenomenal kids. They’re all friends. They love each other. It’s a really good, positive group of girls and we will miss the seniors. They bought into everything we said as a coaching staff. They did everything we asked of them.”
LaClair said freshmen Harper Ratkowski and Audrey Shiery both stepped up when the team needed them.
Bronson, after being down by a set, also played loose and refused to panic on the court.
“It’s not hard for us, we play better when we are behind and we really just found a way to win tonight,” LaClair said. “I’m proud of them, we had some kids out of the lineup again and we had girls step up. It’s nice to have more days together as a team.”
Aleah Brackett led with an impressive 31 kills with nine assists and 21 digs. Braylon Dow recorded five kills with two blocks. Itzel Albarran handed out 17 assists with 11 digs and Roni Bir scored 21 digs in the match. Hermosa Gonzalez added 20 digs, Hadley Wagaman added 21 as well.
Bronson will take on Kalamazoo Christian at 6 p.m. Thursday at Centreville High School.
Mendon to face Battle Creek St. Philip
Mendon finished as the top-ranked team in the final MIVCA rankings for the season. The Hornets will take on Battle Creek St. Philip, which finished eighth in the polls, on Thursday evening in the regional finals. The match is being played on Mendon’s home court at 7 p.m.
The matchups will be a rematch from earlier this year, when Mendon beat St. Philip in four sets at home in late September. To get to the regional finals, Mendon earned sweeps over Howardsville Christian, Colon and Martin. BC St. Phil swept Athens and Climax-Scotts to win the district, plus won in four sets over St. Joseph Michigan Lutheran on Tuesday.
Mendon coach Kenny Herbert said getting off to a fast start helped the Hornets.
“We have really been working on staring fast in practice and I think it’s really helps us,” Herbert said. “We wanted to get them out of system tonight and that benefited us.”
In Tuesday’s win over Martin, Mendon won with scores of 25-10, 25-11 and 25-13.
Cienna Nightingale led the team with eight kills, adding eight seven digs as well while Lashell Blair and Gracie Schultz (with seven digs) had seven kills each.
Karyssa Holtz passed out 23 assists in the win. She scored four kills with eight digs while Sabrina Monroy added three kills, Brooke Gerth totaled two kills as well in the match. Jadyn Samson finished with nine digs and five aces, Michelle Gomez-Sanchez scored four aces and Graye Lukeman totaled four digs.
“The kids come in every day looking to get better. We’re looking like a complete team right now and we definitely saw ourselves being here,” Herbert said of playing in the regional finals. It’s a tribute to the kids for the work they put in every single day.”
Contact Sports Editor Brandon Watson at bwatson@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @BwatsonSJ.
This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Bronson, Mendon volleyball teams to play for regional titles on Thursday
Reporting by Brandon Watson, Sturgis Journal / Sturgis Journal
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