Superior Central sophomore Kylie Stuer gets the kill against Rapid River on Oct. 9, 2025 at Rapid River School. (Adam Hinch/Daily Press)

A slow start didn’t keep Superior Central volleyball from picking up a victory over Rapid River in four sets 20-25, 25-18, 25-15, 25-15 here Thursday.

The Rockets jumped out to an early 3-1 lead on a kill by junior Donna McDonald. McDonald had three kills in the set with the third one putting the Rockets up 19-12.

“We have a hard time keeping our momentum up for long periods of time,” Rockets coach Katrina McNamara said. “We practice hard and we come in with a lot of energy then all of a sudden we crash so we have to work more on keeping that energy at a high level.”

The Rockets jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the second set on a three-point serving run by junior Kinsley Damon. The Cougars answered, scoring 10 of the next 14 points to take a 10-8 lead on a kill by sophomore Kylie Stuer.

The Cougars led 12-10 when the Cougars went on a five-point serving run including a pair of kills by Stuer to extend their lead to 17-10.

“We came out a little cold and slow tonight,” Stuer said. “Our team did a good job of fighting back. We didn’t want it to get to the fifth set so we knew we had to finish it off.”

The third set went back and forth with the Cougars taking the lead at 11-10 on a kill by freshman Violet Porter. The Cougars went on to score 14 of the next 19 points to take the third set.

Stuer had a huge kill from the back line to start the fourth set for the Cougars. The two teams went back and forth with Rapid River tying the game at five on a kill by junior Saylor Carlson and extending their lead to 7-5 on a net violation by the Cougars.

The Rockets pulled to within one at 15-14 but the Cougars answered back scoring 10 of the next 11 points to take the match.

“We came into this game prepared,” Cougars coach Kris Bray said. “Rapid is a good team and they did a lot of good things tonight. We put in a lot of work on our serve and receive every team has its struggles with it, at times we just have to continue to work on that as a team.”

The Cougars were led by Kylie Stuer with 16 kills to go along with seven digs, six aces and four blocks. Lily Simon had 21 assists and six digs to go with two aces and a block.

Superior Central will be back in action Tuesday as they travel to Forest Park while Rapid River will host Big bay de Noc.