Calumet’s Lizzie Torola, right, tips the ball past Iron Mountain’s Annslee Runsat on Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021, in Calumet, Mich. (Eddie O’Neill/The Daily Mining Gazette)

CALUMET — Thursday night’s volleyball matchup between Calumet and Iron Mountain was well worth the price of admission.

While the Copper Kings won it in three straight sets 25-18, 25-22 and 25-18, the effort made by both teams did not disappoint. There were some great volleys, hard kills and tremendous digs.

“Calumet is a good team,” Iron Mountain coach Jeanne Newberry said. “They are well trained and have some big swingers and I am very, very proud of my girls to play like we did.”

“It was a back-and-forth fight to start the first set with Calumet pulling out to a 15-9 lead. The Copper Kings defense was strong as Iron Mountain struggled to get anything by them.

With a strong defense, Calumet was able to set up a powerful offensive punch directed by junior Helen Beiring and senior Marybeth Halonen. Beiring led with 18 kills, and Halonen had 13 on the night. Those two big hitters moved the score to a 21-13 tilt and minutes later to a 25-18 win.

The Mountaineers’ Ellison Powell kicked off a run of four to open the second set. The Copper Kings came back to tie after an Ila Goulette block stopped the ball at the net. Both teams tied multiple times before Calumet pulled away with a two-point advantage.

“We battled back for sure,” Newberry said. “We’ve been practicing coverage on the court, and I think today we covered really well, and that kept us in the game.”

Down by two at 19-21, Iron Mountains’ Chloe Maycroft stepped up to the service line and got her team two points and another tie. They stayed knotted at 22 before Halonen put the final three nails in set number two with a 25-22 win.

The third set looked quite similar to the second. With the score 3-3, the Copper Kings Mallie Anderson put together a service run of five to make it 8-3 However, the small lead did not last long as the Mountaineers’ Bella Rosenthal served up a five-point run of her own to make it 9-9. Both teams traded points for the following eight points. That came to an end when Beiring took over at the service line for Calumet. She tallied a five-point run which eventually turned into a 25 -18 win. Beiring had three aces on the night, while Halonen had four.

“We hit our stride there in the third set,” said Calumet’s head coach Kate Bonacorsi. “The girls’ communication was better there at the end.”

The Copper Kings play in the Ashwaubenon Invite this weekend. Their next home game is Sept. 21 against Lake Linden-Hubbell.