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MENOMINEE -- Just as they appeared to be turning a corner, the Menominee girls volleyball team reverted back to its early-season struggles. Unlucky bounces and errors spelled doom for the Maroons on Senior Night, as the Wolves of Carney-Nadeau swept the host Maroons 3-0 on Thursday.
"It was frustrating to see how we played tonight, especially after we had some great matches," Menominee head coach Sara Betzinger said. "I'm hoping that we got this out of our system so that we can regroup with districts coming up next week. We're capable of much more."
From the start, Menominee had difficulties keeping the ball in play and quickly found themselves down 9-1. The Wolves set the tone early by ferociously patrolling the net, with a nice kill by Hailey Ernest and a timely block by Liana Blahnik helping Carney-Nadeau grow its lead to 16-2.
"First and second set, I thought we were playing as good of volleyball as we could," Carney-Nadeau head coach Steve Kedsch said. "We covered the floor really well and hit passes on target."
The Maroons inability to keep the ball inbounds continued to haunt them as the set wore on. Mary Lerret dove to keep keep one play alive only to see the ball squirt just out out play while a tip-in at the net by Blahnik deflected off the chest off Menominee's Ashly Powell.
An ace by Carney-Nadeau's Sandra Boulton increased the Wolves lead to 21-2, but Menominee was able to get back onto the scoreboard thanks to a ball hit into the net on an errant serve that made it a 21-3 game. Unfortunately for the Maroons, service receive errors doomed any hopes of a comeback after Menominee served the ball into the net to give Carney-Nadeau the 25-3 victory.
"Carney was getting everything. They got under the ball and played well tonight," Betzinger said.
The second set began with a 3-3 tie as each team matched each other punch-for-punch before more trouble keeping the ball in play for Menominee resulted in the Wolves taking an 8-4 advantage.
Kills by Boulton and Taylor Kedsch and another block by Blahnik helped to swell the Wolves' lead to 17-4 but Menominee's defense began to show signs of life, as Powell and Makenzie Wellner controlled the net with a block each to make it a 17-6 game.
Aces by Erin Barrette and Wellner, along with serve receive errors on Carney-Nadeau, helped the Maroons claw back and narrow the score to 20-13, but the Wolves regained their composure behind an ace by Jules Thoune and a Zoey Poupore kill en route to a 25-13 win.
Momentum appeared to be behind the Wolves as set three began after another Boulton ace and a block by Heidi Kirschner pushed Carney-Nadeau's lead to 11-2. Momentum quickly swung back to Menominee's favor, who appeared rejuvenated in the third set.
Kills from Wellner and Powell helped the Maroons make it a 16-5 game and the Maroons flew to the ball with much great authority than they had all evening.
Menominee's struggles to keep the ball in play once again helped Carney-Nadeau get back into the set, along with service aces courtesy of Boulton and Thoune. The Maroons gifted the Wolves free points after serving the ball into the net and another ace by Boulton gave Carney-Nadeau a 24-15 lead.
With their backs against the wall, the Maroons continued to battle.
"Our passing was good tonight," Betzinger said. "We had a lot less shanked balls, it's just what we do with it after words that was frustrating."
Powell got Menominee going with a block and an ace and Barrette dropped in an ace of her own to cut the deficit to 24-18 but a close play at the night proved to be the deciding play.
Boulton tipped the ball over the net into the waiting arms of Powell, who couldn't quite keep the ball from floating to the ground and giving Carney-Nadeau the 25-18 victory and preserving the 3-0 sweep.
"We started out strong but our unforced errors gave Menominee confidence and they started serving tough at us and put the ball in difficult spots for us to get to," Kedsch said.
"They got it together on that last game and did some good things," Betzinger said. "We were more aggressive than we had been all night and we started to collapse on those tips. Basically, they started to jell as a team."
Powell led the Maroons with two aces, two kills, three digs and six blocks, Barrette tallied a kill, three digs and two aces while Wellner notched an ace, two kills, a dig and two blocks.
The Wolves were paced by Boulton, who contributed six aces, seven kills, 12 digs and block. Ernest had a team-high 25 assists to go with 12 digs and three kills, Blahnik chipped in an ace, an assist, seven digs, three blocks and 10 kills, and Kedsch had an ace, 12 kills and 11 digs.