TRAVERSE CITY — A surging Traverse City St. Francis team took a big victory over a Traverse City Christian team celebrating one of its own.
The Gladiators won 25-23, 19-25, 28-26, 25-23 in Monday’s volleyball match at TC Christian in the Sophie Strong game.
The Sabres held their second Sophie Strong night, raising funds in memory and honor of Sophie Stanton, an eighth-grader who passed away in May 2024 after her second bout with cancer.
Stanton spent weeks in quarantine during treatment, using what’s called a “Dream Room,” a room all of her own at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, custom outfitted with things that fit her personality and interests.
Last year’s event raised enough money to fund four Dream Rooms, and Sophie’s father Jimmy said he hopes this year’s can equip even more.
Sophie Stanton was a TC Christian student since kindergarten and would have been a junior this year.
“This is a way for all her friends to remember her,” said Carrie Johns, whose daughter Lauren was in the same grade as Stanton. “It’s great to see so many St. Francis fans also in pink.”
St. Francis players and fans joined TC Christian’s team and spectators in wearing pink, with Sabres players also sporting pink cancer awareness ribbons in temporary tattoos on their arms. Many fans in attendance wore pink face paint as well.
“Cancer took Sophie from this world,” Jimmy Stanton said while addressing the crowd before match. “But we still have hope because our hope is not in this world.”
Division 3 honorable mention Gladiators (15-7-1) have won six of their last seven matches, with the only setback a five-setter against No. 4 Elk Rapids, a team the Glads host Wednesday in their final home match of the regular season.
St. Francis eked out a first-set win 25-23, scoring the final four points after trailing 23-21 on back-to-back aces by Ashlynn Stimpson. Coco Miller’s ace finished off the rally.
The Division 4 No. 3-ranked Sabres (22-5) led by as many as seven on several occasions in the second, with a CC Andersen ace putting TC Christian at set point. Three Abby Karczewski aces spurred an early 5-0 run that gave the Sabres a 7-4 lead.
“They have some really strong hitters,” St. Francis coach Katie Aurand said. “That also makes it really difficult to play. When you have one key player, it sometimes can be easier to really hone in on that player. When it a well-rounded, scrappy team, that’s almost harder because everybody has the opportunity to get the ball over. That’s where I’m really proud of my girls to match scrappiness with scrappiness. They really started to pick up the balls, and they really started to trust the sister standing next to her, and that’s always really cool to see.”
The third set featured 10 ties or lead changes from 22-22 onward, including a Lucy Wichern kill to pull the Gladiators back even at 24-24.
“We did a really good job pushing through,” Brown said. “There were multiple times where we were down by like seven or eight points, and we just kept pushing and ended up getting the win. It was super loud in their gym, too. We’re not really used to that.”
The fourth consisted of numerous runs by both teams, with the Sabres getting out to a 12-8 lead as a Stimpson ace capped off a 6-0 spurt. A 7-0 TCSF run put the Gladiators up 18-14, TC Christian put up a 6-0 stretch that included three Stimpson kills to take a 23-20 lead and St. Francis closes out the match with a 5-0 run, ending the match at 10 p.m. The Sophie Strong day also featured a junior varsity contest and two middle school games between the Glads and Sabres.
“We just started having a lot of fun and playing for each other,” Brown said. “At the beginning we were kind of a little frustrated with ourselves, but we decided to just pick it up and play for each other. That really helped with our setter-hitter connections.”
Aurand is in her first season coaching the Gladiators, who made back-to-back state finals appearances in 2023 and 2024 before advancing to the quarterfinals last season.
“I love playing TC Christian,” Aurand said. “They’re just a fun, scrappy team, and I love when my team is able to match that energy, match that intensity, and match that scrappiness. You have to to respect good volleyball, and tonight was good volleyball, so it was a fun match.”
The Sabres lost to the Gladiators 25-21, 18-25, 13-15 in the Lake City Invitational just over two weeks ago.
“These games, even when you walk away with a loss, it’s really not a loss,” TC Christian coach Jillene Bouwmeester said. “I would rather play a game like this and technically walk away with a loss and be so much better because of it.”
TC Christian has only one senior — Ava Chinlund — among its nine varsity players, all of whom play big roles in the Sabres’ rotation.
St. Francis was led on the night by freshman Gisele Keillor (22 kills), Brown (11 kills, seven blocks), Wichern (14 kills, three blocks), Miller (22 digs), Hadley Humphrey (12 digs) and Izzy Boynton-Fischer (10 digs).
“Our two freshmen, Giselle and Izzy, stood up in some key games, and they’re really showing maturity behind their years,” Aurand said. “Coco was reading incredibly tonight, and then the connection between Hadley and Lola was chef’s kiss, fun to watch.”
The Sabres were paced by Promise Bouwmeester (19 assists, two aces, three digs, nine kills), Scarlet Bouwmeester (nine kills, two aces, four blocks), Stimpson (16 kills, 13 digs, one assist, two aces) and Mallory Tebben (four kills).
“CC Anderson, she was all over the court, picking up balls all night,” Jillene Bouwmeester said. “She was always in a good mood, had good energy the whole night. Ashlynn Stimpson absolutely crushed it. She played every single role, and whenever we were down, she was the one that we just gave the ball to to make a really smart play. And then Promise Bouwmeester; she just never leaves the court, always hustling no matter what.”