Page 14 — Thursday, November 18, 2021 — The Hastings Banner
Reworked rotations get Vikings to semis
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Lakewood junior Bailey Fifelski, typically
a reserve for the Viking varsity volleyball
team, was halfway through her school day
Tuesday when head coach Cameron Rowland
pulled her away from her online world histo-
ry class momentarily.
He told her she’d be filling a role as an
outside hitter in the MHSAA Division 2 State
Quarterfinals later that evening.
“I was sweating all day,” Fifelski said with
a bit of a sincere smile.
Junior Paige Wolverton was in A.P. Lang
when coach Rowland got to her to tell her she
had to be ready to expand her role from being
a service specialist to playing right back in
the quarterfinal. That move also meant that
junior middle Ellie Possehn wouldn’t have
Wolverton taking her place at the service line
each rotation.
“I kind of had that going through my head
all day to get ready for that,” Wolverton said.
“It was nothing I couldn’t overcome. I knew
I was able to do it, but it was definitely some-
thing that I needed to prepare myself for.”
While Fifelski said the nerves never really
dissipated, even once it was time to square off
with Onsted in the state quarterfinal at
Williamston High School, Wolverton was
ready to go when the Vikings finally got to
step on the court.
“I was good. I felt confident in myself and
I knew that everyone around me knew I could
do it and I just needed to think the same thing
about myself,” Wovlerton said.
It was warm-ups when freshman setter
Abby Pickard was certain she was ready for
her new role. The Vikings had to switch
things up from a 6-2 offense to a 5-1, mean-
ing Pickard would be the only setter on the
court for the Lakewood varsity volleyball
team for the first time.
Pickard got that news from junior team-
mate Alivia Everitt, who shared it with her
while she was working on a bulletin board at
the high school.
“She looked at me surprised and said,
‘yeah, okay. Thanks for letting me know,’”
Everitt said.
“I have not done that this season,” Pickard
said. “This could be interesting. I was a little
nervous all throughout the day and then
during warm-ups I noticed I was doing really
well and I was like well if I play like this I’ll
be fine and then I brought it into the game.”
All the Vikings who took the court Tuesday
brought it as the Lakewood girls scored a
25-23, 25-8, 25-18 win over Onsted to earn a
spot in the MHSAA Division 2 State
Semifinals which will be held Friday at
Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek. The Vikings,
ranked third in the state in Division 2, will
take on No. 5 North Branch in their Division
2 semifinal match beginning at 6:30 p.m.
“I’m ready for it. We all are,”Fifelski said.
This will be the sixth consecutive season the
Vikings have reached Kellogg Arena, home of
the final two rounds of the state tournament,
and the eighth time in the past ten seasons.
Top ranked Pontiac Notre Dame Prep and
the two-time defending Division 2 State
Champions from Grand Rapids Christian,
ranked second in the state, will meet in the
other Division 2 Semifinal Friday at 4:30 p.m.
The Viking team that took the court
Tuesday and the one that will take the court
Friday look a bit different than the one that
earned that No. 2 ranking in the regular sea-
son. The Vikings will be without junior all-
state setter/outside hitter Skylar Bump and
senior outside hitter Kenzie Wells for the rest
of the state tournament. They do hope to wel-
come back senior outside hitter Zayda Kruger,
who has been out since the Vikings’ district
championship victory, back to the floor for
the state semifinal.
The Vikings’ first real adversity of the state
tournament came from within having them
out, but the team still has yet to drop a single
set in the postseason.
Fifelski and Wolverton were on the court
more Tuesday than they have ever been
before for the Vikings. Wolverton said she
hasn’t played that much in a match since club
ball last spring. Pickard said the last time she
ran a 5-1 was at Nationals with her Far Out
club team last June.
“As soon as I got word, I knew exactly
what our line-up was going to look like,”
Rowland said of the changes with a couple
regulars out. “Bailey, she had to be Onsted all
week [in practice] on the outside. She has
been doing that kind of thing all year. One of
the reasons that we have been able to pick
teams apart so well in the postseason is
because our other side of the net is so strong.
I think you saw that.
“Paige’s role was much bigger tonight. She
did a great job. Abby had to run a 5-1. She did
a great job. Bailey’s role got much bigger and
she was phenomenal out there. She took
some swings that I have never seen from her.
That ball she hit to zone 4 from left front was
really, really nice. I think this group is a
group of volleyball players. They have done
it before.
“Like I said to one of our parents last week,
I wanted the gym to be as loud as possible
last Thursday [at the regional final], because
I know Lakewood kids grow up expecting to
play in those types of environments and I
knew if that happened that teams couldn’t
keep up. I think that has been huge for us.
Our student-section is as good as it has ever
been. I think that has helped us so much too,
because there is an environment that
Lakewood kids expect to have to play in so
they’re unphased by the moment whether
their role got so much bigger today or they
have been out there the whole time all year.
To have that and to have this program and
this culture, kids just step up when something
happens and it has been great.”
There were moments where nothing was
different, like when Onsted was surging a bit
late in the third set. The Wildcats cut a sev-
en-point Lakewood lead down to four until a
perfect serve receive from sophomore all-
state libero Carley Piercefield went up to
Pickard, and Pickard’s set went to senior all-
state outside hitter Maradith O’Gorman on
the left side where she swung for a kill that
put their team up 20-15.
They won points in ways uncommon for
them this season. A Fifelski kill moved the
Viking lead to 20-18, prompting an Onsted
timeout, and the Vikings returned to the court
to get an ace from Possehn. Wolverton and
Rowland both said they were very impressed
with what they saw from Possehn at the ser-
vice line.
Defense has been they foundation of the
Lakewood team this fall, and it will need tocontinue to be. To beat another team ranked
in the top five in the state the Vikings will
have to win a lot more points like the one that
got them to 24-18 late in that first set
Tuesday. The point started with Fifelski tak-
ing a swing at the left pin only to have the
ball blocked back at her. She managed to
recover from her attack to keep the point
alive. Senior middle Tori Wickerink reacted
just in time with her back to the net to put up
a second ball after a dig by Pickard later in
the rally. O’Gorman came diving forward
once to keep the ball off the floor. Eventually,
it was Everitt slamming down an overpass by
the Wildcats that clinched it.
It was one of five kills for Everitt, who also
had a block and two digs.
O’Gorman, who signed her National
Letter of Intent to play at Michigan State
University last Friday, had a match-high 17
kills and 21 digs to go with two blocks and
three aces. Even with three all-state seasons
already completed and a fourth drawing to a
close, few times has O’Gorman drilled the
ball like she did on few kills early in the
third set. She had back-to-back kills from the
left that ended a 5-0 run by the Wildcats that
had tied that set at 5-5. Another rocket from
the right side put the Vikings up 13-7 not
long after. Onsted seniors Rayne Ross and
Ruby Foster both had to take a brief extra
moment after getting a piece of one of those
late swings by O’Gorman, or rather after a
piece of one of those late swings by
O’Gorman had gotten them.
“I think we knew they had six seniors that
play all the way around and they weren’t
going to let anything go,” Rowland said of
the Onsted Wildcats. “They were going to
fight as hard as they could. It is their coach’s
[Rhonda Hubbard] last season. She had
known that all year I think and we knew that
they were going to play hard down the stretch
and they did. You could tell that it mattered to
them. They went after things and stayed
aggressive all night.
“So far, when that has happened we have
been able to match our level.”
Abby Pickard put up 27 assists in the
match to go with four digs, three kills and two
blocks.
Fifelski finished with four kills and two
digs. Wolverton had three digs. Possehn had
two aces to go with three kills and a block.
Wickerink had two kills, a block and two
digs. Alli Pickard had another strong service
night with three aces to go with five digs.
Piercefield had 16 digs and two aces.O’Gorman finally officially a Spartan
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Volleyball seasons with sisters Maradith
O’Gorman and Aubrey O’Gorman playing on
different teams have been few and far between
over the past half dozen years.
The sisters will be back together next fall
with the Michigan State University Women’s
Volleyball program after Maradith, a
Lakewood High School senior, signed her
National Letter of Intent to join Aubrey, a
freshman at Michigan State, in front of the
Lakewood High School gymnasium Friday.
“I committed in eighth grade,” Maradith
said.
She said she has always hoped to play col-
legiately with her sister. They started playing
together on a local club team when Maradith
was a third grader, and moved onto the Far
Out Club at the 13’s level a couple years
before Maradith turned 13.
The duo played three seasons together on
the Lakewood varsity volleyball team, reach-
ing the MHSAA Division 2 State Final
together twice.
As the only O’Gorman on the Lakewood
varsity this fall, Maradith is likely to earn all-
state honors for the fourth time. She was
recently nominated as one of the 11 finalistsfor Miss Volleyball in the state of Michigan
and the Vikings are once again eyeing a state
championship. Lakewood will take on North
Branch Friday in the Division 2 State
Semifinals at Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek.
Aubrey said it has been a bit of a humbling
experience with the Spartans this fall after
watching her sister lead the Vikings to a
regional championship last week. Maradith
shouldn’t be too surprised by the competition
she finds in the Big Ten.
“You just have to work hard throughout all
of practice and work for your spot,” Maradith
said of what she has heard from her big sister
about the experience. “Obviously, everybody
is good at the college level and nothing is just
handed to you when you get there. School-
wise, she loves school. She loves being on
Michigan State’s campus.”
“I think that being in an environment with
athletes that can match her athleticism is
going to challenge her even more than she
has been challenged before,” Lakewood head
coach Cameron Rowland said. “I think she’ll
thrive in that environment because she is so
competitive. I think she will figure out ways
to be successful there.
“I think her ability to handle the ball first
contact skills, is maybe what gets her on thecourt before her offensive skills even. To
have an athlete like that that can handle the
ball and do some other offensive things is not
super common. I think that night be her
wheelhouse and then kind of figuring out
how to score at the Big Ten level because it is
a different level.”
Maradith boosted her ball-handling abilities
as a freshman when the Lakewood varsity
volleyball team needed her to set. Traditionally
a right side hitter, Maradith is moving into a
role as an outside/right side this season and
plans to play the same spots as a Spartan.
When volleyball season finishes up,
Maradith will begin her third varsity basket-
ball season at Lakewood. It was a sport she
gave up once she started getting into club
volleyball, but was happy to get back at it as
a sophomore even if volleyball takes up all
the time in the offseason.
“Definitely a trophy,” is what Maradith
said she is looking for from her final week of
high school volleyball. “The Finals trophy. I
would like one of those. But I mean, this
team this year has been super special to me
and so being with them for the last week of
playing and being at practice and surround-
ing myself with them. This last week is going
to be super nice.”Lakewood senior Maradith O'Gorman signs her National Letter of Intent to join the Michigan State University Women's Volleyball
program Friday at Lakewood High School surrounded by teammates and friends. She first committed to the Spartans as an eighth
grader. O'Gorman will join her sister, Michigan State freshman Aubrey O'Gorman, on the Spartan roster. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Lakewood junior outside hitter Bailey Fifelski looks to her teammates and the Viking
bench as the celebration for another return trip to Kellogg Arena begins on the court
at Williamston High School Tuesday. The Vikings swept Onsted in three sets in the
MHSAA Division 2 State Quarterfinal in Williamston to earn a spot against North
Branch in the Division 2 State Semifinal that will be played Friday at 6:30 p.m. inside
Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Lakewood senior Maradith O'Gorman hits an attack during her team's district victo-
ry at Hastings High School earlier this month. O'Gorman, one of 11 Miss Volleyball
Finalists in the state of Michigan this fall, signed her National Letter of Intent to join the
Michigan State Women's Volleyball program next season Friday. (File photo)