GWINN - The Gwinn High School volleyball team had to win a decisive fifth game over Ishpeming at home on Tuesday night, but the Modeltowners were able to celebrate on parents' night with a 3-2 (25-13, 25-22, 12-25, 11-25, 15-13) win over the Hematites.

Gwinn jumped out to a strong 2-0 lead in the first two games after taking advantage of mistakes by a lackluster Ishpeming team that coach Amy Rautioloa said didn't show up to play at first. But the Hematites (2-9-5, 1-5 M-PC) bounced back after realizing they hadn't done their ritual warm-up cheer.

"They forgot to do at the beginning," Rautioloa said, "so they did it right before the third game, and they said it really got them fired up."

Whether it was the cheer or something else, Ishpeming got on a roll and won the next two games in an emphatic fashion, outscoring the Modeltowners (2-5 M-PC) 50-23 in the third and fourth games to force a final game five.

"The girls definitely turned the game around," Rautioloa said. "They got their momentum, our serves started to go in, and instead of reacting to the hitters, they started anticipating where the ball was going to go."

Rautioloa added that in the first two games her team had a lack of intensity, committed a lot of mental errors and had trouble staying fired up, and needed the first two games as a warm-up.

After such a strong start, it was the Modeltowners that started to show signs of inconsistency in the third and fourth games, something that coach Collene Froberg said has plagued her team all year.

"We came out strong, but we've been struggling with inconsistency and miscommunication and talking," she said. "The girls do a 100 good things, then they do 100 bad things, and that's what we've been struggling with all season long."

Froberg added that the girls tend to get comfortable once they have a lead, and they start to relax a little too much.

"I don't think it's a problem with over confidence," she said. "It's just that they start doing well so they relax, and then they end up going on a bad streak. They get up and try to get calm, and that relaxes them way too much."

Gwinn didn't relax once the fifth game got going, and Ishpeming put up a fight, but the Modeltowners were able to clean up its errors and connected on some monster kills.

"During the third and fourth game we really took advantage of Gwinn's errors," Rautioloa said. "During the fifth game, Gwinn didn't give up many errors, and we had a hard time getting it going by ourselves."

Emily Bray led the way for Gwinn with 13 kills and six blocks, while Chelsey Caron had 12 digs on defense, as well as six service aces.

"Emily Bray is a very consistent player, and she stuck out tonight," Froberg said. "Chelsey Caron did very good as well, and after coming up from the (junior varsity) team, Callie Corkin is fitting in really well for us."

Corkin had eight assists for the Modeltowners.

For the Hematites, Erin Garceau led the way with four kills and nice aces, as well as 13 digs. Annie LeSage had 16 assists.

"Our big player tonight was Erin Garceau, and also having a big night for us were Annie LeSage, Aireka Pierce, and Kerrie Myers," Rautioloa said. "We definitely got some leadership out of our older players."

Gwinn won the junior varsity game, 3-0 (25-16, 25-22, 15-13).