Michigan Tech’s Courtney Kurkie, center, hits the ball between Lake Superior State defenders on Saturday in Houghton. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — The Lake Superior State Lakers women’s volleyball team came into Saturday’s matchup with the Michigan Tech Huskies with plenty of momentum, but could not sustain it past the first set.

The Huskies came away with their sixth straight victory, 25-20, 25-12, 25-15, at the Wood Gym.

The victory was the Huskies’ fourth straight sweep as they also beat Saginaw Valley State 3-0 on Friday. The outcome was in doubt for the first set, as the Lakers used a 3-1 win over Northern Michigan on Friday as a springboard to a strong start against the Huskies.

“I’m really happy with the weekend,” said Huskies coach Matt Jennings. “Two 3-0 sweeps is a good thing. Lake State came off a big win last night, so we knew we’d have our hands full and I thought they really pressed us in the first set.

“I told the team after the game I was just very, very happy with the way we got better as the match went on. Our offense started clicking and our ball control sort of cleanup and once that happens we’re hard to beat.”

The match was also a special one for junior outside hitter Olivia Ghormley, who picked up her 1,000th kill near the end of the final set.

“I have to credit my team,” she said. “I can’t get 1,000 points without without my team being there. I think having the confidence from from last season carried over into the season. I think we all worked hard and improved in the offseason. I think it definitely shows with individual achievement.”

Jennings was very pleased to see Ghormley reach the milestone before the end of the homestand.

“She ended the weekend and this homestead on 1,000 on the money,” said Jennings. “That’s pretty cool. I mean, she’s such a wonderful person and such a selfless person. She’s worked so hard for everything she’s got and she doesn’t want any of the attention, but we’ll give it to her.

“She’s such a lovely, lovely player and just a great attitude. I cannot think of someone who deserves more of the attention really than she does still have. To have 1,000 kills not even halfway through her junior year, it speaks to what kind of player she really is.”

In the opening set, the Lakers (4-7, 1-2 GLIAC) did a lot of good things and, at one point, held a 14-10 lead after an ace by Abby Beachnau. Jennings utilized a timeout to try to rally his troops, and the decision worked as the Huskies got consecutive kills from junior outside hitter MacAulay Petersen and Ghormley before a kill from senior middle Emilia Widen. After a Lakers’ hitting error, the set was tied 14-14.

From there, the teams remained close until a service error from the Lakers’ Emily Kalinowski put the Huskies (9-3, 4-0 GLIAC) up 19-18, a lead they would not relinquish as Petersen racked up three more kills before the set ended. Petersen ended with 11 kills in the match.

“They have some players that can play,” Jennings said. “I think their setter does a really good job. They’ve always played really good defense. Coach (Dave Schmidlin) has them push up really well. (Camdyn Odykirk) had a really good game. We kind of scouted her and we thought we would have our hands full there. I think we did a good job of containing (Amanda Reid) who’s a good player for them typically. I think we had we had a number here tonight.”

From there, the Huskies took control of the match. They took advantage of the Lakers’ struggles in the service game, the Lakers had eight service errors. They also kept the Lakers’ offense from being able to build any momentum, holding their hitters to just 13 kills total over the final two sets.

On the other end of the court, the Huskies pressed their advantage. Ghormley had 11 of her match-high 16 kills in the second and third sets. Petersen had five. Junior outside hitter Anna Jonynas had four of her six kills in the final two sets as well.

Ghormley likes playing on a team where there appears to be a lot of depth at the moment.

“It’s so incredible,” she said. “I mean, it’s very rare that you have so many different options. I mean, you have four pins, five pins. You have four middles who can score at any given time. So I think I know Laura’s having fun with that. We’re all having fun with it. It’s definitely nice to have that.

“It makes defense on the other side very hard.”

Freshman middle Morgan Radtke, who was given the chance to start the match by Jennings, also looked good as the match went on, getting three of her four kills in the final set.

“I have a lot of confidence in her,” Jennings said. “I have a lot of confidence in this team. She’s such an athlete. I mean she gets up so high. I think she had a ball hit her head, you saw, in the third set. I mean, that went way up and she is just way above the net.

“She’s going to be a dandy. I’m telling you she’s going to be a really good player for us. To get her some game minutes here her freshman year I think is important considering she’s learning from two senior middles and a really good sophomore in Janie (Grindland). You can see the future of our middle core between her and Janie going forward. I love the four of them right now, and I love being able to play any of them in any given night.”