MIDLAND — Consider the bar raised.
Traverse City Central’s season ended Thursday with a 3-0 Division 1 regional championship match setback against No. 9 Rockford, but not before numerous accomplishments that haven’t been done in a long time.
“I already told the girls tonight, ‘You guys know that this is the new standard, right?'” first-year Trojans head coach Emily Wilbert said. “So the goal next year would be to make it to state quarters. We’re raising the bar.”
Rockford (37-13) pulled out a 25-20, 25-19, 25-20 win, but Central (32-9-4) had leads in all three sets.
It’s the sixth regional title since 2011 for the Rams, who move on the to state quarterfinals Tuesday at Cedar Springs against No. 3 Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern.
“They put up a great fight against us,” Rockford head coach Kelly Delacher said of Central. “We did a great job of blocking and kind of forced them to change what they were doing offensively. They started tipping the ball and we had a tough time picking those up early.”
The Trojans won the program’s first Big North Conference title since 2005 — Wilbert’s senior year at Central — and advanced to the program’s first regional championship match since 1987.
Central loses three big pieces of his team to graduation in defensive specialist Lily Briggs and outside hitters Catelyn Heethuis and Kate McCrary.
“It was a big year,” Wilbert said. “I feel so fortunate to have had the players we did, and the parents and the coaches and the program. It was a really good group to walk into, and I give a lot of credit to the people that were here. We couldn’t have done it without everybody.”
The Trojans return sophomores Marley Richmond and Elyse Heffner, plus juniors Phoebe Humphrey and Natalie Bourdo from the starting lineup, along with junior defensive specialist Addison Booher, junior outside hitter Sydney Baehr and sophomore middle blocker Lucia France.
Rockford boasts an even younger roster, with three freshmen and a sophomore starting alongside two seniors.
The Rams started out like the match would be a runaway win, leading 9-3 with all three Trojans points coming on Rockford errors. Central rallied behind a couple of McCrary kills and eventually tied the set at 12 on a Briggs ace. The Trojans even briefly grabbed a 17-16 lead on a Bourdo ace.
“We did a great job of serving and they had a tough time getting the ball to their setter,” Delacher said. “It made it a little bit easier for us to set up our block, and we’ve got some big blockers all the way around. They did a good job of forcing them to make some mistakes, and we blocked them a few times as well.”
Central took an 8-4 lead in the second on two Humphrey tip kills and a block, forcing a Rams timeout to regroup. Rockford chipped away at the deficit and eventually took the lead 12-11 on an ace by senior Meredith Simmons, an Indianapolis commit.
The Trojans tied the third set 9-9 on a Heethuis kill that sparked a 6-0 run highlighted by four Briggs aces for a 14-9 lead.
“I’m really proud of the way that the girls never let up,” Wilbert said. “All three of those games, we were in it and Rockford never felt at any point that they had the game won.”
Freshman Olivia Hosford led Rockford with 12 kills and two blocks, while freshman Isabella Delacher added 19 assists, six digs and two aces, and freshman Sienna Wolfe had four kills and seven digs. Simmons put up 11 digs, 23 serve receives and a block, with fellow senior Elizabeth MacIntosh adding five kills, 11 digs and three blocks, and sophomore Layla Visser pitching in three blocks and seven kills. No statistics were available for TC Central.
“I’m very impressed with what we’ve done in the season and what they were able to do to get us to this game,” Wilbert said. “And then to keep us in this game and give Rockford a run for their money.”
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