Houghton’s Helene Rinkinen (5) and Chloe Serafin (10) go up for a block against Ishpeming’s Brittanie Piotrowski (1) during a match Monday at the Houghton High School gym. (Eddie O’Neill/Daily Mining Gazette)

HOUGHTON — The Houghton Gremlins continued their winning ways on Monday with a three-game sweep of the visiting Ishpeming Hematites, with the scores being 25-20, 25-13, and 25-18.

In the eyes of Gremlins’ coach Blaire Zenner, the win came due to the success of a strong serve-receive.

“It is something we have been working on,” she noted. “It picked up, and we were able to play our game.”

The first set opened with the two teams knotted at three, five and six before the Hematites pushed out to a six-point lead at 18-12. Then came the Gremlins’ Laney Johnson to the line where she posted a service run of seven and tied it at 19. Then with Emmy Pietila on the line it was a race to 25, and the Gremlins won it at 25-20.

After a brief tie at six at the start of the second set, the Gremlins again put on the gas. It was Johnson in the driver’s seat. She served up a run of seven-unanswered points, and the Gremlins lead was 13-7. That morphed into 22-13 lead and an eventual 25-13 win with Kia Markham on the line.

Johnson had five aces on the night and added to that five kills. Chloe Serafin led the Gremlins with nine kills. Helene Rinkinen tallied seven.

“In that second set, we really picked up our play and found our groove,” said Zenner. “I also want to give a defensive shout out to Emmy (Pietila) and her strong defense. She did a great job of keeping the ball off the floor.”

The Hematites led for much of the early part of the third set. Jayden Negilski pushed the Ishpeming lead to 7-4 before the Gremlins tied this one at 11, 12 and 15. Then Johnson worked her service magic one more time with a run of four and a 19-15 lead. With Serafin on the line the Gremlins sealed the deal at 25-18.

Hematites’ coach Kat Beerling said her girls played decent, not great.

“We played flat at times, and they (Houghton) took advantage of our weak spots,” she added. “They put the ball where we were not. They are a good team.”

UP NEXT

The Gremlins will travel to Hancock on Thursday with a 6:30 p.m. start.