Gladstone junior Brookyn Lauscher (16) in purple attempts to make a play at the net against Escanaba junior Brooklyn Beauchamp (4) in black on Sept. 12, 2025 at Escanaba High School.

ESCANABA — Thursday night marked another edition of the Battle of the Bay as Escanaba defeated Gladstone in straight sets (25-22, 28-26, 25-17) in a Great Northern Conference volleyball matchup.

Escanaba used momentum from the win in the second set as they imposed their will on the Braves as they opened the third set by jumping out to a 13-3 lead on a kill by senior Susie Moberg, one of three kills during the third set.

“Winning that second set really gave a big shot of momentum,” Eskymos coach Beverly Ziebell said. “We have some really good leaders on the team. Mary Kate Tourangeau had 19 sets today and Harlee Coolman was digging everything up.”

Coolman delivered a nice serve in the corner for an ace to put the Eskymos up 16-6.

Gladstone scored eight of the next 10 points to cut the deficit to five but couldn’t close the gap any further.

“We didn’t capitalize on their errors,” Braves coach Kaitlyn Hardwick said. “We had too many errors and our blocking wasn’t on tonight.”

Escanaba closed out the third set scoring seven of the last 10 points including an ace by Mara Anderson during a three-point serving run. Anderson had zero serving errors in 19 attempts on the night.

Anderson also had a five-point scoring run in the first set that put the Eskymos up 8-3. Moberg was a force in front of the net for the net as she had a team high 13 kills for the Eskymos senior Ava Stalboeger had 10 kills on the evening for Escanaba.

“We really wanted this one,” Stalboeger said. “It was our home opener and we felt all the energy in the building and we just wanted to get it done after the tough loss to Kingsford.”

Coolman led the Eskymos with 33 digs and also had an ace.

“It feels good to beat them in three sets,” Coolman said. “I couldn’t do it without my teammates. Mara came into the season a little later than everyone else but she has been working really hard and it is showing on the court and I’m very proud of her.”

The second set went back and forth with neither team leading by more than six points. Gladstone’s biggest lead was six at 20-14 and 23-17, the Eskymos biggest lead was two at 28-26 which was the final score of the set.

“We have had some really close sets with our opponents to start the season,” Ziebell said. “It’s exciting and our girls are coming around, they are getting used to each other and we are playing as a team.”

Eskymo s junior Brooklyn Beauchamp had a four-point scoring run to cut the deficit to 23-21 and went on to score seven of the last 10 points in the set.

Other stats from the game, senior Chloe Dubord had 20 digs for Escanaba, Tourangeau had 19 assists to go with four digs, one ace and one kill.

Gladstone had senior Lillie Johnson with two kills and two aces on the night and Brooklyn Lauscher had two aces and a kill.

The Eskymos who won the JV match, return to action Tuesday as they host Negaunee. Gladstone will host The Rock Tournament today in Gladstone.