Eddie O’Neill/Daily Mining Gazette — Dollar Bay’s Maggie Gaunt serves during a game Monday in Lake Linden.

On Monday, teams from the Copper Mountain Conference got their first look at the team everyone is chasing, the Lake Linden-Hubbell Lakes, who won the conference last fall. The Lakes, who had some shaky moments throughout Monday’s tournament, still managed to come away with a victory in the championship over the Jeffers Jets in two sets.

The Jets are excited for Year Two under head coach Rachel Torp.

Jeffers Jets

This marks the second season for Jets coach Rachel Torp, and she was excited about what she saw in her team’s debut as they defeated Dollar Bay 25-20, 25-13 in first-round play Monday.

She credits her team’s strong performance to her six seniors.

“We only lost two girls to graduation,” she said. “So basically we have our whole team returning.”

Torp noted that her 12-member squad has been working hard over the past two weeks in practice.

“The girls are hitting the ball well,” she said. “We have some strong middles and a very good libero in junior Miranda Heinonen.

She has also been impressed with juniors Morgan Larson and Maria Johnson who are new to varsity and have been progressing well in the setter position.

“We need to work on stronger serves. In our first game (Monday) we gave up eight points just on poor serves,” she said. “We need to be stronger and more aggressive at the net.”

Torp added that there is “volleyball fever” at Jeffers. The school now has 30 girls involved in the program from ninth to 12th grade.

“We have a new JV coach and have even added a freshman team to our program,” said Torp. “There is a lot of interest, and its certainly is a sign that a good, strong program is taking shape here at Jeffers.”

Dollar Bay-Tamarack City Blue Bolts

After nearly two weeks of practice the DB-TC Blue Bolts already have a big thing going for them in the eyes of their coach Martha Storm.

“They are a great group of girls who are easy to coach and have so much potential,” said Storm. “I say jump and they say, ‘How high?'”

That good attitude will be key as the Blue Bolts are a young squad again this season. They have only 10 girls and the majority of them are underclassmen.

They have only one senior and two juniors after losing four seniors to graduation from last year’s group.

While the team had a losing record last year, Storm said that it was a winning season in so many other ways.

“We have to look beyond the scoreboard,” she said. “The girls learned so much last year and already they are imparting that to the younger players as role models. Not only are we teaching volleyball here but they are learning about teamwork, sportsmanship and leadership.”

Storm said she was impressed with what she say in her girls as they battled Jeffers in the first round of play Monday.

“I liked the effort,” she said. “The girls did not give up. I thought they passed the ball well. Most of all they were out there having fun, and that’s what is important.”

Chassell Panthers

It is a family affair for the Chassell Panthers this year on the volleyball court. The 2019 varsity team features not one but two sets of twins- all with the last name Huhta. Katie and Janie Huhta are seniors, and Nora and Linnae Huhta are juniors.

Head coach Karli Michaels, now in her second year at varsity, is looking towards the senior Huhtas to lead the charge along with Shannon Rantamaki and Maelene Warren.

“I am going to use Shannon as our big middle and Maelene as our outside hitter,” she said. “It should be a good year for them.”

The Chassell squad is coming off a winning season and lost just three seniors. Michaels said that, for the most part, she liked what she saw from her girls in their opening game Monday.

“We attacked the ball well, and I liked that,” said Michaels. “We need to work on the communication as to who is doing what and where on the court. We also have some blockers.

“We just need to keep working at it, and we will.”