Bulldogs fall to powerhouse Battle Creek St. Philip in state final

BATTLE CREEK — Throughout this magical postseason run, the Inland Lakes volleyball team had an answer for every opponent it has faced.

Each time the Bulldogs fell behind, they recovered magnificently en route to victory.

But taking on the biggest powerhouse in Division 4, the Bulldogs simply didn't have enough to hang around.

And their incredible journey came to a close just like that.

The Bulldogs saw their bid for a first-ever volleyball state championship come up short after suffering a 3-0 loss to defending champion Battle Creek St. Philip (17-25, 12-25, 8-25) in the title game at Kellogg Arena on Saturday.

"They (St. Philip) were definitely a solid team, they were the better team," said Inland Lakes senior setter Alyssa Byrne. "They definitely were the team that showed up, and we just couldn't click that game, which was unfortunate. They had some really good hitters. It was just hard to play against."

The Bulldogs (27-11-2) held their own early against the Fighting Tigers (40-11-1), battling back to tie the first set up at 16.

However, the Tigers, led by powerful hitter Brooke Dzwik, exploded with a 9-1 run to take the opening set.

"It's kind of been our thing this season is that we always start slow, and then they've done a really good job of adjusting to the level of the other team, but this game was not the case," said Inland Lakes coach Nicole Moore. "The game overall, we could not find our groove. A lot of my hitters were probably in the negative percentages, we were getting aced, losing all sorts of points that are very out of the norm for us. Just really bad timing to be playing a top team in the state and having everything kind of go wrong.

"It's a real bummer because the girls worked hard to get there. They proved so many people wrong, but they just fell really flat in this game."

The Bulldogs were never able to recover in the second set against the Tigers, who opened up an 8-1 lead and didn't look back, making it a 2-0 advantage.

After building an 8-2 lead to open the third, the Tigers cruised to a second consecutive state title and the 22nd in their history.

The loss ended the greatest volleyball postseason run for the Inland Lakes program, guided by Moore, a second-year coach for the Bulldogs.

Before Saturday's state final, Moore helped the Bulldogs to a first regional title since 1995 and a first-ever state semifinal appearance.

"It has been a whirlwind the last three weeks," Moore said. "I told some people that I don't even know if I've really celebrated because every win means a regroup and a scouting report for the next day, and a practice plan and redirection for the next day. The girls worked hard, and it made my job harder to get everything ready so fast, but that's a good thing.

"It's been an incredible experience. I'm incredibly proud of how far we went because there's a few games we probably should've lost and we went much farther than that."

The Bulldogs advanced to their first state title game following a thrilling five-set victory over Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart on Thursday.

"Most of us girls were talking and we haven't even wrapped our heads around it," said Inland Lakes junior libero Ryann Clancy. "For our goals, we wanted to be at the Kellogg Center. At the end of the (regular season), we were kind of going into the postseason and we were talking about, 'We could really make a run if we give it our all, we play our hardest.' We all kind of had that grit and we wanted it really bad. I am just blown away with the ladies that I've played with and I'm beyond proud of all of them."

Junior outside hitter Natalie Wandrie led the Bulldogs with five kills and 10 digs, while fellow senior outside hitter Olivia Monthei tallied four kills and four digs. Byrne finished with eight assists, two kills and seven digs, and Clancy added 16 digs defensively. Other Inland Lakes contributors included Hannah Robinson (two kills), Megan Vigneau (three digs) and Emily Van Daele (one kill).

Going into the fall, it was unknown whether the Bulldogs could eventually make a deep postseason run.

With quality, chemistry and team unity, the Bulldogs had one of their best seasons in program history.

"We've played together for so long, so just the team cohesion was there," Byrne said. "We knew that we all wanted it, and we wrote it all down on a poster in August at the beginning of the season, and we wrote down that we wanted to make it to the Kellogg Center. We did everything we could to make it — and we made it."

Saturday's game marked the final contest for the four-player Inland Lakes senior class of Monthei, Van Daele, Byrne and Vigneau.

Battle Creek St. Philip was led by a team-high 14 kills from Dzwik. Maddie Hoelscher and Alexis Snyder chipped in with five kills apiece.

As for the future, Moore loves where her program is headed.

She also knows this thrilling tournament run will have a major impact down the road.

"I've already got girls asking me about where they can play club volleyball — and nobody plays club volleyball at Inland Lakes," Moore said. "We're going to try to have a freshman team next year, and that was always kind of questionable of whether we'd have enough (players), whether we could get a coach, and I think our middle school programs are going to take off now that we've had this awesome experience.

"Basically the whole community came with us, so I think volleyball's going to be a good thing moving forward."

The Inland Lakes players and coaches were also thankful for the terrific support they received throughout the postseason.

"With the community and everybody that showed up, there were people donating, they were calling Mr. (Lewis) Robinson, the teachers, Mrs. (Kelly) LaPeer, our science teacher at school. She went above and beyond and was at all the games. The student sections were always at the games and they traveled at five in the morning to come down for that state championship. There's just so many key people we could all thank for just being there 110 percent.

"I'm very thankful for the community I live in and for the people that are here."

This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Inland Lakes falls to Battle Creek St. Philip in volleyball final