Courtesy photo The Escanaba volleyball team and supporters pose in the Houghton Lake High School gym Thursday.

HOUGHTON LAKE — It was a heartbreaker for the Escanaba volleyball team in Houghton Lake Thursday. The Eskymos’ unprecedented journey into the Division 2 Region 9 finals was ended by the Cadillac Knights 3-0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-17).

“This was a great run,” Eskymos coach Adam Lambert said. “It’s the farthest we’ve ever made it, and I want to make sure the girls don’t hang their heads over this. They have nothing to be ashamed of.”

In each set, the Eskymos hung with the Knights until the midpoint, and the Knights pushed through the Esky defense.

“Cadillac was a disciplined team,” Lambert said. “The team (Esky) was losing some of their spark. We do a lot of mental conditioning, but I think they were beating themselves. (Cadillac is) a really good team.

“It was well fought. Up to the mid-point, we were with it. We just couldn’t pull it out.”

The Eskymos came closest in the first set (25-21), thanks to a five-point run that tied the set at 15, but the Knights went on an 8-1 run to pull ahead 23-16.

Esky strung together a 5-1 run to cut its deficit to 24-21 but couldn’t cleanly return a hard spike from the Knights and dropped the set.

“We were the underdogs tonight,” Lambert said. “We performed really well in our last two (matches). They didn’t play like they played against Kingsley or Houghton. This was one where we needed to play well.”

The Eskymos briefly held the lead in the second set thanks to a Cadillac return landing out of bounds to give Esky a 9-8 lead. They added one more before the Knights tied it at 10, and the Eskymos were able to play keep ahead until a 6-1 run from Cadillac gave it a 17-13 lead.

“We got in our heads, and we started playing it safe,” Lambert said. “We needed to strike hard, with power.”

The Eskymos were able to move back within three but couldn’t climb further before the Knights earned the set.

Esky took the first point of the third set, but a quick run from the Knights put it behind 5-1. It was a lead Cadillac wouldn’t let go.

The Eskymos cut their deficit to two, and added three near the end of the set but couldn’t shift the match’s momentum.

“Our serving was 93% tonight, but that has always been one of our strengths,” Lambert said. “We had a lot of errors, and it isn’t something you can do against a team like Cadillac. They were good at shooting targets, and they saw some of our points of weaker defense and targeted them.”

Nicole Kamin led the team with 23 kills, one ace, eight digs and three blocks. Katelyn Stahlboerger notched 10 kills and one ace. Bailey Barron picked up 17 digs, three kills and an ace. Carney Salo finished with two kills, seven assists and eight digs. Anna Smith collected two kills and seven digs. Mari Bink earned two kills, Grace Charles had eight assists and Maysie Lancour pulled in 16 assists.