Austin Hemmingson | Daily Press Rapid River’s Cecilia Pilon (10) hits the ball over the net to Carney-Nadeau defenders MaeLynn DeBacker (7) and Liana Blahnik (9) during Thursday’s match at Rapid River.

RAPID RIVER — When they weren’t beating themselves, the Carney-Nadeau Wolves looked dominant again here Thursday in a 3-0 (25-12, 25-19, 25-9) volleyball sweep over Rapid River.

The Wolves (7-1-3) had to overcome 11 service errors that allowed the Rockets to stay competitive, but when they got their serves over the net, they were really hard to stop.

“The only thing we struggled on tonight was serving,” Wolves’ coach Steve Kedsch said. “I don’t know what our serving percentage was, but that’s not how we normally serve. Other than that, we had a little bit of a slow start, but the girls picked up the energy.”

The first set was tied at 6 before the Wolves found their groove, scoring 19 of the final 25 points.

The Rockets (1-4) played their best in the second set, erasing an 11-7 deficit with a four-point service run by Kristin Goodacre. The score was tied at 17 before the Wolves pulled it together and scored eight of the final 10 points.

“They’re very good and very well coached,” Rockets’ assistant coach Mike Mohler said. “We were able to be competitive and give them some tough games, especially in the second set. We hung tough with them, we just couldn’t pass with them. The deal there was they have heavy hitters, and we just weren’t passing well. That got us.”

The Wolves’ offense started to click in the third set as they blew it open after leading just 6-5 early on. Zoey Poupore went on a five-point service run and Jules Thoune went on a four-point run to close the set and the match.

“In the third set we had our offense clicking,” Kedsch said. “That’s where we want to be. We started passing the ball to our setters so we could run the offense. That was the biggest thing.

“In the second set I didn’t think we played bad, but it seemed like Rapid River gained some confidence. They had a couple nice service runs against us, they were serving the ball well, and we were having some trouble with our serve receive. They kept that second set close.”

Liana Blahnik led the Wolves with 10 kills, six digs and four aces. Haley Ernest added 16 assists, eight digs and two kills while Taylor Kedsch chipped in with eight kills, five digs and three aces. Thoune had seven assists, five digs and three aces while Sandra Boulton added 11 digs and two kills and Poupore had 12 digs.

Goodacre led the Rockets with four kills and Gabby Moss added three.

“We had good production out of Kristin and Gabby,” Mohler said. “We’d like more out of our middles like Gabby Moss, but Kristin is our main outside hitter and she had good production. The hits we got over we just couldn’t get a kill on because Carney was covering them. It was a tough night.

“I told the girls in the locker room that this is probably the single best team we’re going to see this year. They’ve been good for the last two or three years as well. They have a good program. It’s an honor to play them — they’re always good and they challenge us every time. Tonight wasn’t our night.”

The Wolves, who also won the jayvee match 25-10, 25-20, will play in the Forest Park Invitational Saturday. The Rockets visit Munising Tuesday.