CARNEY — The Menominee volleyball team traveled to Carney for a match on Thursday night, and the state-ranked Wolves made quick work of the Maroons in three straight sets for their 16th victory of the season on Senior Night.

Carney-Nadeau, currently the 10th ranked team in Division 4 in the state of Michigan, controlled the nets with seniors Lianna Blahnik and Taylor Kedsch heading up their team’s 29 kill effort on the night.

“We’re very fortunate to have two big hitters on this team,” C-N coach Steve Kedsch said. “Some teams are lucky to have one of the caliber of Taylor and Lianna, and Haley (Ernest) does a great job of getting the ball to them. We have a solid defense behind them.”

Menominee looked a little overwhelmed in the first game as C-N jumped out to a 4-0 lead with two aces from Sadie LaLonde, but Menominee battled back with a tap from Rylee Wickstrom, a kill by Joey VanBeek and a block from Wickstrom made it 4-3.

From there, the Wolves showed why they are one of the top 10 teams in Division 4 by going on a 12-0 run with two aces from Lizzie Haddock and four kills from Blahnik and Kedsch to hike the lead to 16-3 before a wide serve game Menominee possession back.

An ace by Wickstrom and a tap from Kayla Drifka made to 17-6, but Ernest led them to victory with eight straight points for a 25-6 win.

“The end of the first game wasn’t great for us,” Menominee coach Sarah Betzinger said. “An attitude set in, and that’s very rare for this team. They get down, but tonight I don’t think we knew what to expect, and we kind of got punched in the mouth in the first game.”

Things got a little better for Menominee in Game 2 as the Maroons were able to stick around, in the beginning, thanks to some solid digs on the hard hits from C-N and sprinkling in a few kills of their own.

After the two teams traded points to start the set, back-to-back kills from Maria Pesola and Lani Holmes gave Menominee a 5-4 lead, but C-N got two straight kills of its own from Blahnik and Kedsch to go up 6-5. The Wolves would not give up the lead again.

A kill from Menominee’s Erin Olson made the score 8-6, but after that, Menominee would not score another point until a C-N violation gave the Maroons back possession with the score at 20-7. On the run, Ernest served for three aces while Kedsch had four kills.

Menominee scored sporadically in the remainder of the game, but eventually, C-N was victorious 25-14.

“Things got better for us after the first game, and the girls came off the floor after the second and said they started to have fun. They looked a lot better, they were moving and talking more, and when we do that, we have success,” Betzinger said.

While Menominee struggles at times with its communication, the Wolves pride themselves with the way they move and talk on the floor, and Kedsch thinks that is a big factor in the success they have had in recent years.

“We hang our hat on the communication. We figure if we can out-talk the other team, that should help trigger our offense and defense, and hopefully, it gets us one step ahead,” he said.

C-N took an early 6-4 lead in the third game, but back-to-back aces from Wickstrom tied the game before Blahnik and Heidi Kirschner delivered two kills in a row to give the Wolves a lead they again would not give up.

An ace from Drifka brought the score to 20-12, but C-N got the serve back on the next point, and Sam Kedsch ended the game with four straight aces.

Wickstrom had three aces and a block to lead Menominee while Olson had a team-high four kills. Holmes had five digs and two kills, and Drifka and VanBeek each had a team-high three assists.

For C-N, Blahnik led the team with 12 kills while Kedsch added nine, Kirschner had five and Ernest had a game-high 26 assists.

In JV action, the Maroons won two out of three games (25-15, 23-25, 25-14).

Jocelyn Villas and Hanna Drifka spearheaded the defensive effort with 16 and 15 digs, respectively. Emma Fowler ran the offense with 21 assists and added seven kills. Piper Monroe had a solid all-around game with 11 digs, eight kills, three aces and two blocks and Mady Kamin had three aces and three digs.

Next up for Menominee is a district matchup on Monday against Bark River-Harris at home, while C-N will take on Hannahville Nah Tah Wahsh in a district opener at home on Monday.