News
Centurions finish last week of regular season 1-1
By Ryan Schlehuber, Ƶ Sportswriter
The Ƶ Centurions women’s volleyball team ended its 2025 season with a win and a loss at home last week.
The Centurions(1-11 ƵAA Northern, 6-19 overall)hosted Great Lakes Christian College in a non-conference showdown, which was also Family and Alumni Night, Monday, Oct. 27. Ƶ came out on top in three sets as the Centurions beat the Crusaders 25-23, 25-14 and 25-19, snapping an eight-game losing streak.
Centurionsheadcoach Kara Youngs said her team put together a great game where her front court and back court put together a dominate performance.
“Our numbers were strong and that’s how you get the wins,” Youngs said. “Our hitting percentage was strong andour back row, with serve receive, we had high numbers in our system passing.”
The team’s hitting percentage was at 22%, which, Youngs said, anything over the 20% threshold is considered solid.Youngs said sophomore Katelyn Bignall (Belding, Mich.) did well with her hitting, producing a strong .294 hitting percentage against GLCC, with sophomore JordanDompreh(Flint, Mich.)also doing well, hitting .308 andfreshmanErin Borek (Grand Rapids, Mich.) hitting .381.
Both sophomore Alanna Kent (Belding, Mich.) and Borekled the team in kills with nine whilefreshmanElla Bishop (Grand Rapids, Mich.) finished with seven.Domprehled the team in assists with 30.Sophomore Jaden Gomez (White Cloud, Mich.) led the team in digs with 12, followed by Borek andfreshmanJocee Pleune (Grant, Mich.) with 10.
Youngs said she was happy to see the team not affected by the losing streak and getting the win to bring back any lost confidence.
“It just gives us confidenceofwhat we are able to do and what we’re capable of,” Youngs said. “After having that losing streak,it was nice to be able to go out and find a win before the end of our season.”
Timberwolves beat Centurions in three sets in season finale
In their season finale, Wednesday, Oct. 29, during Sophomore and Adopt-A-Classroom Night, the Centurions lost to the North Central Michigan Timberwolvesin three sets,15-25, 20-25and13-25.
Youngs said one Timberwolves player – Chloe Winchell – created havoc for Ƶ allgame. With her powerful hits and skills to adapt to changing defenses, Youngs said her team was unable to crack Winchell’s code.
“She’s a really strong outside hitter and we just struggled to shut her down,” Youngs said. “Everything she came at us with seemed to have a kill. She adjusted to our adjustments, too.”
Winchell finished with a game-high 12 kills.
Youngs’ team alsostruggled with service aces, as well, getting only one all game.
“We couldn’t push them out of system with their servereceive,” Youngs said.
Borek led Ƶ with seven kills andDomprehhad 16 assists. Sophomore Briley Andres (Cedar Springs, Mich.) led the team in digs with 11, followed byPleune, with 10.
With a 15-11 overall record and a 6-6 record in the ƵAA Northern Conference, NCM finished third in the conference and qualified for the ƵAA postseason tournament, along with first place Grand Rapids Community College, which went undefeated in conference play at 12-0, second place Muskegon Community College (10-2) andfourthplace Bay College (6-6).