Marian extends CHSL reign to fourth season with narrow win over St. Ursula in Bishop title match

October 13, 2023 - (MATTHEW B. MOWERY — MediaNews Group)

ANN ARBOR — This one stays here.

While the Catholic League's newcomers from Toledo have more or less dominated the championships this fall, the No. 10-ranked Birmingham Marian Mustangs weren't quite ready to relinquish their throne atop the league's volleyball heap.

Marian extended its reign as CHSL champion to a fourth straight year with a 25-23, 15-25, 25-17, 25-23 over Toledo St. Ursula in Thursday's Bishop Division tournament championship match at Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard.

"It's nice to keep it in Michigan. How about that?" Marian coach Mayssa Cook said with a laugh. "Coach Jason (Reilly, the St. Ursula head coach) and I joke about, we're not good matchups for each other. Last match, and this match, it literally could go either way. We're so similar as teams, that skill-wise, it's a toss up. And it just gonna come down to … whoever makes the least amount of errors, like in all games of volleyball, but I mean, one or two errors makes a difference in a match."

It marks the fourth straight CHSL title for Marian, and 18th overall. No team other than the Mustangs or rival Farmington Hills Mercy have won the league top division title since Cook's Father Gabriel Richard teams in 2015 and 2016.

The Mustangs (26-6) shared the regular-season title with both Mercy and the Arrows, but that's not been odd for the new teams to do well right away.

Photo gallery from CHSL Bishop volleyball tourney final between Marian and St. Ursula

So far this fall, Toledo teams have won both cross country titles, girls golf and boys soccer, while Toledo Central Catholic looks like a lock to win the football title, too.

So when the Arrows (14-8) dominated the second set Thursday to tie the match up at one set each, the Mustangs weren't having it.

"That happened the first time we played them, too. We crushed them a set. And then they came back and crushed us very next set. And this match was just the reverse. They crushed us. And we're like, 'No, we're not going to have that.' And we turned it around in the third set," Cook said. "It really just came down to one or two serve-receive rotations where either our serve receive fell apart, or then when we got the pass, we made hitting errors. So having had that happen, I'm glad with the way we bounced back and came back and annihilated the next set."

As they have much of the season, the Mustangs have depended on Izzy Busignani in key spots. She delivered the cross-court kill that closed out the third-set win, then had a blast off a dig attempt that put the Mustangs ahead 24-23 in the fourth set, finishing the match off with an ace on the next point.

"I mean, I look at my setter and I say, 'Izzy.' And she goes, 'I know.' But it's like, I don't want to leave that one-percent chance that she doesn't know what I'm thinking. Yeah, for sure. She (Busignani) is the only one returning from last year's lineup. And she's one that we depend on a lot," Cook said. "I'm happy to see that the young players have really narrowed that gap and been a lot more of a supporting cast and not like early on (when) Izzy truly had to carry the entire team. And you saw Dani Mertz step up, Calli LeFevre, Jayla (Zayti) came in with a few big kills. Sophia (Smith) had a big block and a big kill at the end of that. Our libero (Maria Odeesh) who sat the bench last year because we had a four-year starting libero that was a senior — to step up and play at the level she's playing, having not only little to no varsity experience, but to feel the pressure of defending three state titles. It's really satisfying to watch them step up."

This year's journey to the league title may be just that much more satisfying for Cook for that very reason, considering how many youngsters they've had to rely upon. Odeesh and Busignani are juniors, Mertz a senior, but the majority of the rest of the contributors are freshmen or sophomores.

"In some ways, and with the exception of like, maybe my first season where I'm coming in and setting my standards, the standards that I want and the culture that I want — a lot of times the first season, the coach may have the most challenges. Yet from a coaching side, this has been a little bit more challenging, but maybe in a more exciting way. Normally, you know, you got two or three kids, you need to kind of push along and (say), 'Come on, you got this,' and you've got enough of a supporting cast where it's OK," Cook said. "The joke at the end of last season was 'Heck, we've really got to coach next year!'"

The Mustangs play again Saturday, when they face Frankenmuth.

Colleen Nudd led the Arrows with 17 kills, while Olivia Batch had 16 and Erinn Moloney 14. Devin Dzienny had 18 digs and Lucy Mott had 47 assists.