HOUGHTON — On Monday, the Calumet Copper Kings faced off against the Houghton Gremlins on the volleyball court for the third time this season, and the outcome was the same.

The Copper Kings won in straight sets 25-21, 25-12, 25-16.

Despite the quick match, Houghton head coach Blaire Zenner said her team played some very good volleyball.

“That was the best volleyball we’ve played this season,” she said. “We had good blocking at the net and court awareness from all the players. They knew where the ball was coming from and going.”

While the Copper Kings have mowed through local competition this season with apparent ease, their head coach Kate Bonacorsi knows that won’t always be the case.

“Looking ahead to the post season, we know the competition will get harder,” she said. “I am always impressed with the fact that these girls have high expectations for themselves. They are not satisfied with just winning. They always want to get better.”

The first set was Houghton’s best. With senior Micaela Geberkoff at the line, the Gremlins jumped out to a 3-2 lead. They were able to put some hard hit balls past the Copper Kings and move the lead to 7-6. The Copper Kings however bounced back. With Jana Loukus at the line, Calumet was able to take a 10-8 lead. The two teams tied at 11 before Copper Kings’ Lizzie Torola moved the score to 16-12. A big block off the tall arms of Houghton’s Stella Wickstrom rallied the hometown crowd at 17-19, but the Gremlins could not take a lead and lost the first set 25-21.

In the second set, Marybeth Halonen opened with a service run of seven for the Copper Kings. She varied it up between hard hit balls and floaters that kept the Gremlins on their feet. A 7-0 lead morphed into a 16-7 tilt with Brooke Pomroy serving it up. The Copper Kings rolled to a 25-12 win.

Despite the second-set loss, Zenner still saw a number of positives.

“We moved well, and we kept that confidence when we were down,” she said.

Calumet’s Halonen opened the third set with a 3-0 run. That quickly turned into a 10-5 tilt with Loukus as the line. However, there were plenty of good volleys in between. In short, Houghton did not go down easy in the 25-16 match-set loss.

Helen Beiring led the Copper Kings with 17 kills. Torola had 10.