Todd Rose | Daily Press Hannahville’s Char Sagataw (7) tips the ball over the net as Big Bay de Noc defenders look on Thursday at Hannahville.

HANNAHVILLE — The Hannahville Soaring Eagles hadn’t played a volleyball match in nearly five weeks.

They made up for lost time here Thursday night, opening with a 25-20, 25-22 victory over the Big Bay de Noc Black Bears in the Northern Lights League West Division playoffs.

“That was a long layoff with a lot of uncertainty, but the girls rose to the occasion,” said Hannahville coach Dan Kleikamp. “Give credit to our upperclassmen for stepping up and holding everybody accountable. They were definitely prepared. Munising Baptist has some strong athletes, yet our kids never backed down.”

The Black Bears then fell to Munising Baptist (25-13, 25-21) before the Soaring Eagles bowed to the Bobcats (25-15, 25-18).

Munising Baptist and Hannahville resume in the NLL championship tournament Saturday at Kinross Maplewood Baptist.

The Soaring Eagles trailed the Bobcats 13-6 in the second set of the finale before getting a sideout and five-point service run by Larrissa Thunder to climb within 13-12.

Hannahville was still within 17-14 before Anna Veneburg recorded back-to-back kills and the Bobcats took advantage of three miscues for a 22-14 cushion.

The Soaring Eagles trimmed their deficit to 23-18 on a kill by Jaylyn Keshick before the Bobcats secured the decision on passing and hitting errors.

Veneburg served for 23 points and Kadynce DeFrancesco added 22 in the round-robin event for the Bobcats (9-1).

“Anna is pretty good at the net,” said Bobcats’ coach Julie LaFlamme. “She has come a long way in the middle. Erin Wilson also likes to play the middle position and her hitting came around in the second set. Most of our girls also did well with their serving. We got most of our serves in and had some good volleys tonight.”

Thunder served for six straight points as Hannahville gained a 19-13 lead over Big Bay in the first set of the opener.

Hannahville still led 22-20 before scoring the final three points, including one on a kill by Char Sagataw.

“Normally when we play best of five, it works more to our advantage,” said Big Bay coach Angie Paulson. “Momentum is our thing and it usually takes us a while to get it. The Hannahville girls are very positive. They’re so good at creating their own energy.”

A nine-point service run by DeFrancesco helped Munising Baptist gain an insurmountable 14-4 advantage over the Black Bears in the first set.

Big Bay trailed by as much as 16-8 after a kill by Veneburg.

The Black Bears mounted a comeback in their season-finale and drew within 23-21 on a Bobcats’ passing error.

Munising Baptist gained a 24-21 lead on a kill on Maddie Leutscher and secured the decision on a kill by Veneburg.

“The girls kept battling,” said Paulson. “They improved from the first to second set. They did a better job communicating and did a good job on defense, but missed a lot of serves. We’re proud of what we did. We came a long way from our first set against Hannahville. It just wasn’t our night.”

Big Bay de Noc — DeKeyser (six aces, 29 digs); Bleau (three kills, 14 digs); P. Jones (three kills, 13 assists, 11 digs); L. Jones (14 digs).