Brian Bell | Marinette EagleHerald Bark River-Harris’ Makena Lockwood prepares to hit a spike past the block attempt of Menominee’s Makenzie Wellner during Thursday’s match in Menominee.

MENOMINEE — Holding a 2-0 series lead and all of the momentum on its side, the Menominee volleyball team looked as if it would be going home early in Thursday’s match against Bark River-Harris with its first sweep of the season. That was until the Broncos sprung to life, battled back and won the next three games to steal a 3-2 non-conference victory over the Maroons in the Menominee High School gymnasium.

“After we started off the season strong we’ve went into a little bit of a slump lately so we knew we needed something to help us turn it around before Districts and we hoped tonight would be the night,” Broncos coach Jen Ives said. “We started out a little slow. Menominee fought the whole way, but the girls found some grit to pull off Game 3 and then we just rolled from there.”

With their backs against the wall in the third game BR-H trailed 7-4 before a kill from Makena Lockwood gave the Broncos the serve with Alexis Berg stepping to the line. Berg went on to serve for 10 straight points including three straight aces to give her team some breathing room.

Menominee didn’t go away and started to come back after Erin Barrette returned the serve to Menominee with a tap over the net allowing Ashly Powell to cut the deficit to 20-16. After BR-H’s next serve attempt went awry, Kylie Wickstrom used an ace and a couple of mistakes from the Broncos to tie the game at 20 and give Menominee a 21-20 lead, but Lockwood came up clutch in a big spot for BR-H with a kill to tie the game at 21.

Berg served BR-H to a 24-21 lead but the Maroons got the next point and Barrette used an ace and a Gracie Finger kill to tie the game at 24. The Broncos took a 25-24 lead on the next ball but a kill from Makenzie Wellner re-tied the game at 25 for the final time. Menominee’s next serve went long and BR-H score the next point to win Game 3 27-25.

“We had to make a couple of personnel switches tonight and that kind of messed with the flow of everything,” Menominee coach Sarah Betzinger said. “That, and a couple of the net calls we have never dealt with before made our girls a little timid at the net and that was our downfall.”

The fourth game went back and forth just as the first three did until the score was tied at 14. BR-H took a 15-14 lead and rattled off four more in a row to take a 19-14 lead before a long kill gave the Maroons possession back.

The Maroons trimmed the deficit to 22-18 on an ace from Finger, but three straight miscommunications on Menominee’s part led to BR-H claiming a 25-18 win and tying the series at two to force a deciding Game 5.

In the fifth and final game up to 15 (win by two), it looked as if Menominee was in the driver’s seat after Wickstrom’s serve gave the Maroons a 5-2 lead and forced BR-H to take a timeout.

During the timeout, the referees ruled that the Maroons served out of turn as Powell was supposed to be the one serving, so the point was taken from Menominee, given to the Broncos as well as BR-H taking possession of the serve with the score at 4-3 still in favor of Menominee.

The Maroons were able to shake off the penalty an increase their lead to 8-4 but a kill from Lockwood got it to 8-5 and gave the Broncos the serve.

Lockwood stepped to the service line and a kill from Kassidy Roll tied the game at 8 but Wellner tapped one over the net to reclaim the lead at 9-8, but not for long as BR-H would score the next six straight points to take a 14-9 lead and push Menominee’s back against the wall for a change.

The Maroons scratched and clawed their way back as Liz Nerat served for four straight points including an ace to tie the game at 14, but a long kill by Menominee and a shot into the net gave BR-H a 16-14 match-clinching win.

“Bark River-Harris is a scrappy team,” Betzinger said. “They forced us to make a lot of mistakes and we weren’t able to force them into any it seemed like in the last couple of games. The girls felt pretty defeated after the serving mishap in the final game, but they were able to come back and tie the game at 14. They’ve got it in them to grit it out, we just need that little bit extra at the end to bring it all together.”

Nerat led Menominee with 27 assists; Wellner had five kills and two aces; Powell had four kills and Wickstrom had four kills and two aces.

BR-H was led by Lockwood’s stellar net play that led to a game-high 18 kills and she added a team-high 12 digs to go along; Berg had seven aces and three kills; Alaska Peterson had a nice all-around game with 28 assists, five digs, four aces and three kills and Roll had six kills.

“Lexi Berg came through for us tonight with serving but Makena Lockwood had a heck of a night at the net. Whenever the ball was set to her, she found a way to put it away,” Ives said.

Next up for the Maroons is the Great Northern Conference tournament on Saturday in Gladstone. Bark River-Harris visits North Central Monday.