Calumet’s Allison Bjorn attempts to block a hit from Houghton’s Sophia Neves during a match Tuesday at the Houghton Gym. (Daver Karnosky/Daily Mining Gazette)

HOUGHTON — While the Calumet Copper Kings volleyball team did earn a three-set win over the Houghton Gremlins, 25-16, 15-17, and 25-21, they had to work for the win all night Tuesday at the Houghton Gym.

The Gremlins fought hard, but, in some ways, they defeated themselves, with 14 service errors committed in the second and third sets, combined.

“We practice those,” said Gremlins coach Blaire Zenner. “We practice a lot of serving, but that has been an area that we have continued to work on all season long, trying to become more consistent servers. That was the game changer tonight for us.

“The first set we didn’t have any service errors, but, the next two, we had eight in the second, eight, and six in the third. So, that was the game changer for us.”

Take away those surrendered points, and Zenner felt her team played hard.

“Other than that, I thought we played really well,” she said. “We found holes and opportunities to keep the ball in play, and we sent it back over the net aggressively tonight.”

On the Calumet side of the floor, while coach Kate Bonacorsi was happy that her team remained unbeaten in WestPAC play, there is still a lot growing her girls can do.

“I feel like we’re doing a lot of things well, but there’s still a lot of aspects of our game that we need to really clean up and tighten up,” she said. “When we have opportunities to take advantage, (we need to) really to do that, and capitalize when we can, and not make unforced errors. (We need to) kind of understand the flow of the game, when you can be more aggressive, or when you should make a smart decision. There’s still a lot that we can improve.”

One area of the game that Bonacorsi was not happy with Tuesday night was the block. Houghton found holes, tooled balls off of the block, and generally did not cower from the height that the Copper Kings throw at the net every play.

“We didn’t block, I think, as well as we should have today,” Bonacorsi said. “Lots of balls were kind of coming through the block and off the block.

“I think just those balls that come out-of-system, or are banging off the block, or I don’t know, balls that are just trickling in over the net, that aren’t necessarily hard-driven, is sometimes difficult to clean up.”

In the first set, the Gremlins held their own with the Copper Kings, tying the set at 6-6, but once Calumet’s offense got rolling, it was hard to stop. Junior Jackie Kiilunen led the way with 11 kills. She also racked up 17 digs over the course of the match. Junior Allison Bjorn had four kills and two blocks on the night.

In the second set, the Gremlins held their own throughout the set, despite the serving errors. The third set was much the same.

“Second set, I thought we did fine,” said Bonacorsi. “Then third set, we didn’t capitalize on opportunities to kind of extend the lead, or close it out when we should have. (We had) missed serves, or made mistakes at times where we shouldn’t have really been doing that.”

Houghton was able to focus on the little things, according to Zenner, and that helped them stay with the Copper Kings.

“We talked a lot about the Hancock game (last Thursday) this past weekend,” she said. “We went to Wrightstown, and took that Hancock game as kind of a learning lesson. (We were) working on pushing through, making changes, and really focusing on the little things. That’s what we continued to do tonight.”

A big reason, at least from Houghton’s perspective, the Gremlins were able to hang in the match throughout the night was the play of senior libero Clea Ollanketo. Ollanketo led the Gremlins with 19 digs.

“Clea was everywhere tonight,” Zenner said. “She had 19 digs, and she just went all out. We needed her to step up, and I think she stepped up in the best way possible tonight when we needed her most.”

KARINIEMI CLOSES IN ON SCHOOL RECORD

Calumet senior Laina Kariniemi racked up 28 assists in the match Tuesday. In Detroit over the weekend, she crossed the 2,000 assist mark. She now needs just seven more to set a new school record. Barring an unforeseen circumstance, she should break the record Thursday at Gwinn.

She also had four aces on the night.

UP NEXT

The Gremlins are back in action Thursday night when they travel to face the Lake Linden-Hubbell Lakes with opening serve set for 6:30 p.m.

Calumet is also in action on Thursday at Gwinn. Opening serve is set for 6:30 p.m.