WESTLAND – The MHSAA girls volleyball playoffs have moved along to the regional round this week.
In Division 4, Michigan Independent Athletic Conference rivals Allen Park Inter-City Baptist and Auburn Hills Oakland Christian squared off in a regional semifinal match at Lutheran Westland High School on Tuesday.
Both teams claimed district titles over conference opponents last week, Inter-City doing so against Lutheran Westland and Oakland Christian against Sterling Heights Parkway Christian.
After sweeping both meetings during the regular season, the No. 6-ranked Lancers from Oakland Christian tripled down and made it three straight vs the Chargers from Inter-City, doing so again in 3-0 fashion (25-20, 25-15, 25-18).
For Oakland Christian and its head coach Liz Franklin, it was going up against a long storied adage in sports.
“It was super fun,” Oakland head coach Liz Franklin said. “This is a team that’s in our conference, and we have swept them twice this season, so it’s what we were hoping to do. When you see a team for the third time, you get a little like, ‘can we pull it off?’
“They came out with so much confidence, so credit to them.”
OC did, however, have to weather an early storm on Tuesday from its conference rivals.
An early connection from setter Grace Fowler and hitter Ellie Millner, with some strong play up the middle from Daneris Gomez, helped Inter-City get off to a good start. The Lancers, though, put an end to that with key plays down the stretch to earn a first set win.
The second set saw the Chargers again jump out to an early lead at 9-7, but the momentum shifted in a big way. Oakland Christian shortly thereafter dominated the action and went on a massive run, cruising their way to a second set victory.
The third set looked more of the same as the second, with a pure dominating effort from Franklin and company. An early 14-5 lead kept her team firmly ahead throughout.
A valiant comeback effort was made by Inter-City, but the near double-digit deficit early was too much to overcome.
“This was everything that we’ve been training for,” Franklin continued. “Some of the girls played the best game that I’ve seen them play all season. That’s exciting, especially this time of year.”
Credit Oakland Christian libero Allison Brock for making key plays on the back end and getting the ball to setter Sophia Parrish, who continued to set up hitters Sofie Williams and Sutton Stockman, gaining point after point for the Lancers.
On the other side, the loss is a sobering one for Inter-City head coach Vince Muscat, whose team like many left in the state tournament was playing its best ball down the stretch.
“We’ve been on such a high, the last two or three weeks, playing at a really high level,” Muscat said. “We were right there with (Oakland Christian), and just didn’t come to play today. Bottom line, I don’t sugarcoat anything and OC was the better team today, and we helped by making a ton of errors.
Ellie Millner (9) goes up for a kill attempt for Inter-City Baptist during a D4 regional semifinal match vs Oakland Christian on Nov 10, 2026. (CORY LINSNER — For MediaNews Group)
“They’ve been the better team all season and then I thought we closed the gap on them,” Muscat continued on about the Lancers. ”Right now, it’s a little disappointing because I think we have the confidence to come in and beat them and I think they just kind of put the strangle on us a little bit.”
The loss marks the end of the 2026 season for the Chargers, a season that ended 15-14-2 with an incredible 11th district championship in as many years.
With a young core, there is a lot to look forward to, says Muscat.
“We got a good core group coming back,” Muscat explained. “So I expect the underclassmen to hopefully remember this and learn from living through this experience. We will be better next year for it.”
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Meanwhile, Oakland Christian now moves on to the regional finals, where they will play Ann Arbor Christian School.
“I think it’s all confidence for us,” Franklin said. “I think that we’ve been really working hard to believe in ourselves, to play confidently. We played some really big schools to get there, so the tough matches that we played all season long are going to help us stick through the rest of this week.”
The regional final matchup will be at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov 12 at Lutheran Westland.