Lake Linden-Hubbell’s Mya Ghazale, left, battles at the net against Jeffers’ Makenna Harris on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2019, in Lake Linden, Mich. (Adam Niemi/The Daily Mining Gazette)

LAKE LINDEN — The Jeffers High School girl’s varsity volleyball team returned to the gym at Lake Linden-Hubbell High School Thursday evening looking to avenge a championship-match loss to the Lakes in Monday’s Copper Mountain Conference preseason tournament.

But despite scrappy play at times, results were very similar for the Jets, falling in straight sets to Lake Linden in a conference regular-season match-up. The Lakes won by scores of 25-12, 25-13 and 25-18.

“They beat us on the tips all day long,” Torp said. “We need to work on our serving, talking, everything. Hopefully this is (just) an off game for us.” 

The match started out evenly with the teams knotted at 5-5 early in the first set, but the Lakes powered to a sizable lead with a 14-1 run from that point. That advantage was powered by solid serving from Jamie Hendrickson and very effective blocking on the Lake Linden side of the net.

In the second game the Lakes barely trailed and got out to a 10-4 lead. Jeffers hung around for a bit within four points up to a 14-10 score, but the Lakes closed out the set with more strong play aided by some unforced Jet errors.

Those errors bothered Jets head coach Rachel Torp a bit.

The third set proved decisive, but Jeffers made the home team work for the victory, again starting out even at 5-5. LL-H generated another big run to get the set to 15-6. Jeffers fought back to within three points at 21-18, but the Lakes’ Melissa Wagner — also a big part of the blocking game all night — served out the last 3 points to seal the win.

Lakes head coach Mandy Perreault said she was happy with her team’s effort in the rematch.

“We were ready,” she said. “This is probably a tone-setter a little bit for the rest of the season.”

Perreault also singled out Wagner, a junior whose play at the net negated many Jeffers kill attempts, as a breakout player.

“She really stepped up tonight,” Perreault said. “I’ve been pushing her in practice a lot lately and it seemed like it sunk in a little bit tonight. I was thrilled for her and it made a big difference (in the win).”

Torp recognized Marissa Nordstrom as a standout performer for Jeffers despite coming up short as a team.

“(Nordstrom) kept us all together,” said the Jets coach. “She knows how to play the court and read balls. We wouldn’t have done (as well as we did) without her.”

The Lakes visit L’Anse on Tuesday. The JV match starts at 5:30 p.m.