BNEGAUNEE — The Gwinn High School varsity volleyball team had to pull off a comeback to keep its dual meet record perfect with a five-set victory at Negaunee on Thursday night.

The Modeltowners prevailed 25-21, 22-25, 18-25, 25-19, 15-7 to improve to 6-0 overall and 5-0 in the Mid-Peninsula Conference.

“We came out strong in the first set,” Gwinn head coach Toni Roberts said. “In the second set, it was 16-16 when one of our top hitters, Emily Curtice, went down with a knee injury.”

The extent of her injury wasn’t known by the coach, though she said Curtice didn’t play again on Thursday.

“Savannah DuVall came in to sub for her and she really stepped up,” Roberts said. “But for the rest of the second set and in the third, the girls were trying to find their rhythm without Emily.”

She said the fourth set started out back and forth before the Modeltowners took control and also breezed through the abbreviated fifth set.

Brenna Bruce made nine kills to lead a balanced Gwinn offensive attack, as teammates Trisha McGuire and Brooke Mannor had eight apiece and Sydney St. Clair added six.

Bruce also had 19 set assists and five service aces, while McGuire added 18 assists and four aces, Mannor four aces and 11 digs, Heidi Eden five aces and 16 digs and Tierra Taylor three blocks.

Negaunee pulled out a marathon JV match, winning 28-30, 25-18, 32-30.

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Escanaba 3, Marquette 1

At Marquette, the Eskymos prevailed in a Great Northern Conference match in four sets, 25-22, 25-22, 20-25, 25-19.

“We were never able to maintain control of the match,” MSHS head coach Mike Morgan said. “Escanaba was able to keep us out of (our) system far too often.

“When we were able to get into (the) system we were able to put balls away; unfortunately, that was not often enough.”

Leading the statistical categories for the Redettes were Aspen Michelin with nine kills, Mikaila Graham with 27 digs, Chloe Hale with 26 assists, Kaleigh Duncan with three service aces and Avery Ledy with two blocks.

Marquette will hold a large contingent of teams at its Redette Rumble starting at 8:30 a.m. Saturday.

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Munising 3, North Dickinson 0

At Felch, Kianne Wendt led the Mustangs in this Skyline Central Conference match, getting 10 kills, 12 digs, three service aces and a block.

Munising won 25-15, 25-16, 25-23 as Daryn Johnson added nine kills, Michaela Werner had three blocks and three kills, Kelsea Ackerman seven digs, Marissa Ackerman five digs and Emily Contreras 19 assists, five digs and a block.

The Mustangs also won the JV match, 25-6, 25-18.

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Iron Mountain 3, Manistique 0

At Iron Mountain, the Mountaineers used pinpoint serving for 16 service aces and get in 93 percent of their serves. IM prevailed 25-10, 25-15, 25-15.

“They brought the heat,” Emeralds coach Amy Nixon said. “They have some really tough servers and that didn’t allow our offense to get going. We struggled to pass their serves.”

Manistique (2-4 M-PC) trailed by 11 points in the second set before cutting its deficit to 20-14, but the home team answered with five of the final six points of the set.

Freshman Kyla Muth led the Emeralds with two kills and two blocks, while sophomore Lenna Smith had two kills. Joslyn Muth added six assists and seven digs.

Manistique hosts Westwood on Wednesday.

IM won the JV match 25-20, 25-22.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee with contributions from the Iron Mountain Daily News. Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.