HILLSDALE COUNTY — Wednesday night host schools played out the last of our district semifinal volleyball matchups for Hillsdale County postseason games.
After the results were tallied, we know that at least one Hillsdale County volleyball team will be playing another week, and it will either be the Camden-Frontier RedHawks — coached by Dawn Follis — or the Reading Rangers — led by first year coach Taylor Lake. Both teams won their District 117 final battles and play for the right to have another week of their season after this weekend.
Under coach Follis, the Camden-Frontier volleyball team has had plenty of historic seasons and marquee names come through the program during her coaching tenure. The last time the RedHawks won a district title was in 2022. That year, the team was led by several standout athletes, including a familiar name that fans have come to know as coach over at Will Carleton Academy this year — Rylee McKitterick.
“There’s several coaches in the area that are old Camden girls, so I love that part,” Follis said. “The love they started with at our house is continuing and they’re still growing volleyball… Because the best part of volleyball is you’re growing kids. You’re teaching a sport, but you’re really growing kids. That’s what coaching is — trying to give them some good life skills, because life is tough. But it’s like a game — you can never give up, and you’ve got to keep fighting.”
McKitterick used those lessons learned from Follis to help lead the WCA Cougars to a first-ever conference championship. The team had their season close in the semifinals on Tuesday night.
Now, Follis hopes those lessons will help give her 2025 team the confidence it needs to continue winning after successfully sweeping Tekonsha in the semifinals (set scores of 25-22, 26-24 and 25-23).
“Some of my young ones are not used to true tournament play, and I saw a little nerves coming through that I did not expect — that I hadn’t seen before this year,” Follis said. “So hopefully they learned a little bit how they reacted and to maybe change that for Friday’s game.”
Zailey Conroy, a reader’s choice athlete of the week honoree, led the team with 15 serve points, 11 assists and three kills.
“Zaley Conroy did a good job of running the offense and trying to keep the ball off the floor,” Follis said. “She’s just a consistent server — she also had five aces.”
Regan Schaedler had 10 kills to lead the team. McKenna Drake had four solo blocks. Schaedler, Drake and Conroy will be key players to watch in their battle with Reading on Friday night.
Rangers defeat Litchfield
Stats unavailable at the writing of this article
After the retirement of coach Melissa Hamisfar from the volleyball program, a coach that will likely leave the halls of Reading High School as one of the most decorated softball coaches in school history, first year coach Taylor Lake took over a team that had lost a talented senior class.
Despite an up-and-down regular season, that wouldn’t deter the Rangers from getting back to a district final match, defeating Litchfield in three sets all in 25-15 final scores.
The Rangers played for district titles the previous two seasons but have yet to break through to a regional appearance. This year, they will face a familiar RedHawk squad for the District 117 title bout.
The Rangers and RedHawks have battled twice before in the regular season, with each team earning a win. The set scores recorded have seen both team’s final points tallies separated by three or less.
The Friday night, 7 p.m., title match will send one of the teams to a Region 30 semifinal appearance, but more importantly crown one of them as a district champion. Tickets can be purchased online.
Districts close season for Jonesville and Litchfield
The Litchfield Terriers end the 2025 season with an 8-19 overall record. Seniors Kelsey Conley, Flore Le Nechet and Abby Bills will move on to winter sports where the girls basketball team awaits the return of Bills, who will likely be in the running for an all-area dream team season.
Jonesville’s varsity volleyball team saw its season come to a close in the Division 3 District 83 semifinals, falling in three hard-fought sets to Hanover-Horton (40-1-1). Hanover-Horton faced Hudson in the district title game.
The Comets came out strong in the opening frame, jumping to an early 6-1 lead, but Hanover-Horton responded with aggressive serving and resilient defense to swing the momentum.
“Our girls truly left everything on the floor, playing extremely aggressive defense and doing a great job at the net tonight,” coach Sydney Barrett said. “We served tough and had some very long and competitive rallies that showed so much grit and passion from this young team. We truly did leave it all on the court, and I am so proud of the effort, determination and mental toughness that these girls demonstrated tonight.”
Senior Morgan Wood led the team with six kills, followed by Payton Nichelson with four and sophomore Amelia Trine with three. Senior Jaclyn Henry anchored the defense with 16 digs, while sophomore libero Olivia Tyler added 15 and freshman setter Olivia Babcock chipped in 13. Babcock also paced the team with nine assists, and senior Jayda Rathbun contributed eight.
The Comets end their season with a 23-20-2 overall record.
This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: Camden-Frontier and Reading advance to District 117 volleyball finals, Comets fall
Reporting by Joseph Flaherty, Hillsdale Daily News / Hillsdale Daily News
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