Cast your votes for the Journal's volleyball Player of the Year!

Now that the fall sports season has come and gone, it is time to vote for some player of the year student-athletes from our area schools.

First up is volleyball. Mendon made a run to Kellogg Arena this year, ultimately falling in the Division 4 state finals to Fowler. The Hornets were the team to run the deepest in the MHSAA tournament this year locally and made a solid run at a potential state title.

You'll notice there are a dozen student athletes up for this year's award as the best in the area. There's a reason behind that as each of the nominees were awarded this past year by the Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association as all-state. Not every team in the coverage area will have a nominee on the player of the year poll and it is not because I am playing favorites or choosing certain schools over the other.

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It just made too much sense to nominate each of the student-athletes who earned all-state honors. That being said, here are the local volleyball players who were named to this year's MIVCA all-state teams in their respective divisions.

Division 2 — Miley Southland (Three Rivers), Second Team

Division 3 — Aleah Brackett (Bronson), First Team

Division 3 — Drew Alexander (Centreville), Honorable Mention

Division 3 — Jaedyn Herlein (Constantine), Honorable Mention

Division 3 — Mary Stears (Centreville), Honorable Mention

Division 3 — Hadley Wagaman (Bronson), Honorable Mention

Division 4 — Jadyn Samson (Mendon), First Team

Division 4 — Gracie Schultz (Mendon), First Team

Division 4 — Cienna Nightingale (Mendon), First Team

Division 4 — Lashell Blair (Mendon), Third Team

Division 4 — Kayrssa Holtz (Mendon), Third Team

Division 4 — Raegan Thaxton (Colon), Honorable Mention

For the player of the year voting, you can chose to vote as many times as you'd like. The polls for the award are open until Friday at noon-time, when a winner will be selected based on the total number of votes earned.

The football player of the year voting will begin on Wednesday morning. I'll be at the Michigan Sports Writers meeting for all-state voting on Tuesday in Lansing, there we will votes on the all-state teams for all eight divisions throughout the state. There are certainly going to be some local student-athletes who make those teams. In addition, the 8-player football teams were also constructed recently as we voted on that as well. More on those in the coming days.

But for now, feel free to vote early and often for the volleyball player of the year.

Contact Sports Editor Brandon Watson at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @BwatsonSJ.

This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Journal's Volleyball Player of the Year voting is now open