PORTAGE – New team, new faces, but similar results.
Lakeview’s volleyball team made a return trip to the regional finals. This time, unfortunately, the Spartans fell short of their goal of bringing home a championship. But, that didn’t make the ride any less impressive.
Lakeview saw a special season come to an end as the Spartans lost 3-0 to Byron Center in a Division 1 regional final in high school volleyball action at Portage Northern High School on Thursday, Nov. 13.
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The Spartans had won a regional title a year ago with a senior-heavy group. This year, Lakeview made it deep in the postseason again with a bunch of new players, showing a high level of consistency for the program.
“With a full new team coming in and a new lineup, I don’t think anybody knew what to expect, us included,” Lakeview volleyball coach Renee Buchholz said. “We have a lot of underclassmen on our team that stepped up this year and proved that they could play. The growth this team has had, from the beginning of the year, until now, it was great and they were very fun to watch this season.”
Byron Center, which was receiving votes in Division 1 the final Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association rankings, came in with a sparkling 36-5-2 record. The Bulldogs also featured one of the top players in the state in Mallory Johnson, who has verbally committed to play at college volleyball powerhouse University of Nebraska.
Byron Center used good defense to defeat Lakeview, 25-21, 25-20, 25-20.
“Byron Center is great team. They don’t let balls drop and they fight for every point,” Buchholz said. “I am excited we fought the entire time and never gave up. We got to the 20s in all three games and that right there was an accomplishment against a team like that.”
Freshman Lanie Overbeek had nine kills and 12 digs with freshman Sydney Manning adding nine kills and eight digs. Abbigail Taft chipped in six kills and seven digs as Madeleine Thunghmung had 26 assists and eight digs and Emerson Manning added 18 digs.
Lakeview ends the season at 39-9-7.
“We accomplished so much this year,” Buchholz said. “We made it to the finals of every tournament we played in. We brought the all-city trophy back to our home school. So yes, tonight wasn’t the outcome we wanted. Byron Center just outplayed us. But, we had a great season.”
No. 6 Kalamazoo Christian defeated Bronson 3-0 in a Division 3 regional final at Centreville.
Kalamazoo Christian improves to 28-12-3 and advanced to the state quarterfinals after beating Bronson, 25-20, 25-18, 26-24.
Bronson ends the season at 29-18-6.
St. Philip saw its season come to an end as the Tigers ran up against the best team in the state in its division.
No. 1-ranked Mendon (36-6-1) defeated St. Philip 3-1 in a Division 4 regional final at Mendon High School.
After losing the first set, St. Philip bounced back to knot things up in the second game, but eventually lost the match, 25-14, 23-25, 25-13, 25-10.
St. Philip ends the year at 25-15-5.
Bill Broderick can be reached at bbroderi@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on X/Twitter: @billbroderick
This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Battle Creek-area results for regional championships in volleyball