IRON RIVER — West Iron County relied on strong leadership from its two senior players and a couple of scoring runs in the final two sets to sweep visiting Ishpeming in three sets in a West PAC volleyball match on Wednesday.

The Wykons won 25-13, 25-19, 25-14. The WIC seniors were Mya Grubbs and Courtney Reitmeyer, who were praised by head coach Brenda Grubbs.

“We’re led by them,” Grubbs said. “They have a lot of court sense, they know the game, they know how to communicate to the rest of the team to get them to do what needs to be done.”

Ishpeming coach Katt Beerling sounded like the match was a mixed bag for her team.

“We had players step up at times, but struggled to string points together and allowed WIC to get too many runs,” the coach said. “Defensively, Emma Poirier led the team, while Madi Mead and Olivia Corp were strong defensively and put up a strong block.

“Sophomore Maddy McNab had a strong match in a new role as well.”

McNab was recently brought up from the JVs as Ishpeming played its second conference match in three days after another three-set loss to Houghton at home on Monday.

During the second set Wednesday, WIC went on a five-point run late to break a 15-15 tie. Then in the third, West Iron scored five straight to make it a 10-2 lead, then another seven-pointer brought it up to 17-3.

Statistically for West Iron, Mya Grubbs had four aces, five kills, three assists and four digs, while Jordan Shamion had eight kills and Reitmeyer 10 kills and five digs.

For Ishpeming, Mead had a team-high three kills to go with four digs, two blocks and a service ace, while Olivia Corp added two aces, two kills and a match-high nine digs. Emma Poirier had seven digs, two kills and an ace as Abbi Bruhnke had six digs and four set assists.

Next up for the Hematites is a match at Iron Mountain next Thursday evening.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.