Lake Linden-Hubbell's Becca Lyons (4) and Abby Beaudoin (10) try to block the ball hit by Calumet's Elli Djerf (13) on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020, in Lake Linden, Mich. (Adam Niemi/The Daily Mining Gazette)

LAKE LINDEN — The Lake Linden-Hubbell girls’ varsity volleyball team hung in for a while in the first set of its match against Calumet on Tuesday evening.

But the Copper Kings asserted themselves and beat the Lakes in straight sets for the victory (25-12, 25-6, 25-8).

Both squads traded points and were tied at 4-4 early in the first set. It was nip-and-tuck from there with neither team building more than a two- or three-point lead up to a 15-12 Calumet lead.

LL-H coach Mandy Perreault felt that her team was “much more energetic” when the match started, sparking their early success.

“There was a lot more talking going on (than later in the match),” Perreault said.

A Calumet side out brought Kings’ junior Marybeth Halonen up to serve and she was able to spark a 10-0 run to win the first set. The Lakes worked hard and hustled, but never stemmed the tide.

Calumet coach Katie Bonacorsi said the shift from the early going to her team’s dominant play was due to finding a comfort level.

“I think we found our rhythm a little more,” Bonacorsi said of the first set.

Perreault said the Lakes succumbed to a higher level of play.

“I think that some hits were a tad scary,” she said. “We got a little discouraged from trying to dig those up and even the serves were hard.”

Throughout the match, the Copper Kings executed at a higher level than the Lakes at the net, generating hard, dominating kills. LL-H struggled offensively to work with the precision needed to keep up. Calumet took that advantage to the second set and opened up with the first six points out of the break.

From there the Kings cruised for the rest of the match based on precision serving — albeit with some service errors due to their aggressiveness — and timely hitting off of mostly good passes and sets.

“We are trying to keep our aces to (service) error ratio at about two to one,” Bonacorsi said. “We did have a lot of service aces down the stretch in sets two and three.”

During the third set, Calumet sophomore Helen Beiring was particularly effective from beyond the baseline, serving eight points in a row to put the Lakes away for good in the middle of the final set. Kings’ senior Elli Djerf also stood out for Calumet with solid service and defensive play to feed the offense.

Perreault cited Lakes’ senior Abby Beaudoin as being the top performer for the home team, while noting an overall lack of experience for her girls.

“A lot of these ladies did not see a varsity game last year,” said the first-year Lakes coach. “So, this is all brand new to them.”

The Lakes host Ontonagon on Thursday.