Marquette sophomore Seiler Hruska leaps to make her serve during a high school volleyball match played against Menominee on Thursday at the Redettes’ gym. (Journal photo by Corey Kelly)

MARQUETTE — On the color wheel, it’s well-known that red shines much brighter than maroon.

On Thursday night, the Marquette volleyball team definitely outshone Menominee as the Redettes swept the Maroons in three sets. Marquette came back to win the first set 25-16, dominated the second from start to finish to get a 25-2 victory and then closed out the match with a 25-21 win in the third.

“I’m very happy with how we played,” Redettes head coach Ann Crandell-Williams said. “Overall, everything came together and we played consistently. It took us a while to get focused (in the first set), so I called timeout and said we needed to communicate.

“After that, they got into a zone, managed the game and took control. Everybody was solid and contributed and that makes it extra fun.”

At the start of the match, the Redettes were definitely in a zone, but it was more of a dazed zone. The Maroons took a 7-0 lead in the first set and went up 10-4 on back-to-back aces by Ashly Powell, who finished with a team-high five aces.

Menominee still led 13-8 thanks to three straight points from Makenzie Wellner, but then the Redettes charged back.

With Seiler Hruska serving, Marquette went on to score 16 uninterrupted points that included five aces from Hruska, a strong kill by Emilee Gooch and a nice block from Maria Millado. The Redettes then easily closed out the set.

Marquette took that momentum into the second set, opening with a 19-0 surge that included two aces from Ashlee Blom and a couple kills from Hruska and Aspen Michelin. It looked at one point that the Redettes might shut out the Maroons that set, but Menominee eventually got on the scoreboard. However, it was much too late to stop Marquette.

“That’s our strongest rotation and it showed in the second game,” Crandell-Williams said. “We’re a month away from districts and we want to continue playing like this. I’m feeling great right now.”

The third set was more of the same as the Redettes jumped out to a 6-1 lead. Menominee did fight its way back though as the Maroons took advantage of a few Marquette errors to gradually close the gap.

Menominee cut its deficit to three on back-to-back aces by Powell, but Gooch finished off the set and the Maroons with a kill.

Hruska led the Redettes’ offense with 12 of her team’s 20 kills while making just one attack error for a .478 hitting percentage. She also had five of the team’s 11 service aces to go with a block and two digs.

Senior teammate Maiya King added team highs of 20 set assists and 10 digs, while Millado had four solo blocks, three kills, nine digs and an ace.

Powell, Wellner and Erin Barrette led Menominee offensively with each getting two kills.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.