BATTLE CREEK― Thursday, the No.5 Traverse City St. Francis Gladiators went head-to-head with the No.10 Cass City Red Hawks in the division 3 volleyball state semifinal. The Gladiators would come on top on the afternoon 3-1.
The Red Hawks came out victorious in the first set 25-22. The following sets would be just as close, but on top would be the Glads with set scores of 25-23, 25-22, and 25-22.
TCSF sophomore outside hitter, Quinn Yenshaw led the Glads on offense with 17 kills. Avery Nance led her team in digs with 23. As a team, the Gladiators tallied 83 digs and 45 kills during their semifinal win.
It was their first semifinal win since 2012 and their first semifinal appearance since 2018. Cass City’s last semis appearance had been just last year. But the Gladiators’ mentality has kept them in the game all season long.
“Our mindset was we belong here too,” Gladiators head coach Kathleen Nance said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s been awhile since we’ve been here. We earned our spot here. We’re good enough to be in this final four and we can win. We’ve got to work hard, we knew it was going to be hard. But we’ve been focused more on not ‘what if we lose?’ but ‘what if we win?’.
Traverse City St. Francis will line up against defending state runners up Kalamazoo Christian Saturday at 4:30 pm at Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek.