Lansing Catholic brings outdoor volleyball to town with Volley Turf Takeover

Jill Marlan has heard about the success East Grand Rapids has had with its outdoor volleyball event at its turf football stadium in recent years. That event and seeing things like the college outdoor volleyball game hosted by Nebraska in 2023 that set attendance records inspired Marlan to want to do something similar in Lansing. So Marlan did her research and talked with the leadership at Lansing Catholic about the possibility of the event taking place locally. And her work over the last year and a half has led to Lansing Catholic planning to host what is being called the Volley Turf Takeover on Thursday, Aug. 20, at Cougar Stadium. The event will feature a varsity volleyball doubleheader that begins at 5 p.m. with a matchup between Williamston and Portland followed by DeWitt facing Lansing Catholic at 7 p.m. "I just think volleyball is trending right now and one of the fastest growing women's sports and (one of) the most watched women's sports right now so I'm just really excited  to bring this to the Capital City," said Marlan, whose daughter, Leighton, is a senior on the Lansing Catholic team. Lansing Catholic and the other participants combined to raise $25,000 to make the event possible. That included renting the floor, stanchions and the volleyball net. The event features more than just the volleyball games and includes a middle school volleyball clinic at 2 p.m. DeWitt coach Carley Robertson and her staff had always been interested in participating in an outdoor event.  She views it as an exciting opportunity for her players. "I know these events have kind of been popping up in the state and obviously on a national level with college volleyball teams playing in football stadiums and things like that," Robertson said. "The opportunity to do that with our team is just really exciting. For it to be the first of its kind in the Lansing area is really just a cool opportunity for volleyball in the Lansing community. I think we're just really excited. Nobody in our group has ever done something like this before so it's how is this going to work? How is it going to happen? I think overall everyone is really excited to do something like this." Marlan hopes Thurday's event is the start of an annual tradition like at East Grand Rapids, which will host an outdoor game for the third time on Wednesday, Aug. 19. "My goal and my vision of this is this will be an annual event and this is something we continue to build on and it just continues to get bigger and bigger and bigger," Marlan said. "My hope really is that we have amazing competitors in the mid-Michigan area in regards to volleyball and there is tremendous talent that comes out of here and we can develop something to where the community comes out in abundance to be able to celebrate and support women's sports at a fun high-paced, high-scoring and rally-scoring type of event that we can get a lot of the community involved around." Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on X @brian_calloway and Bluesky @briancalloway. This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Lansing Catholic brings outdoor volleyball to town with Volley Turf Takeover