Carney-Nadeau’s Taylor Kedsch, center, tips the ball over to Auburn Hills Oakland Christian’s Hailee Ide, right, on Friday in Battle Creek during an MHSAA Division 4 state volleyball semifinal. (Photo courtesy Johnathan Castine)

BATTLE CREEK — It was in a nearly empty arena and lacking almost all fans that the Carney-Nadeau volleyball team clashed against Auburn Hills Oakland Christian in an echo of its 2018 run.

However, the Wolves couldn’t stop history from repeating itself Friday when they fell in four sets, 25-23, 21-25, 25-19, 25-20, to the Lancers in an MHSAA Division 4 state semifinal at the Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek.

“I knew watching a little bit of film that (Carney was) good,” first-year Oakland Christian coach Brian Theut said. “I knew today was going to be a battle. My defense, I’ve driven (it) in all year — serve, serve-receive and defense.”

In the fourth set, with the Wolves down a set, two Lancers’ errors trimmed Carney’s deficit to 19-18, but it was a serve into the net that turned possession over to the Lancers and made it 20-18 — an issue for the normally precise Wolves all match.

“Going into a match like this, you don’t have to be perfect, but we just had more errors than they did,” C-N coach Steve Kedsch said. “They were a really good service team. Everything was coming low and fast, and they served (in a lot of different ways).

“They could control the serve better than us. They dug a lot, and they’re a good defensive team. We’ve faced good defensive teams before, but they backed it up with some good hitting and great serving.”

AHOC’s Anna Frazee then engineered a four-point run — that ended with an ace — to move it to match point.

But a Lancers’ serve went long and gave the Wolves one final opportunity to force a fifth set.

“The girls played hard today,” Kedsch said. “We just got matched up against a team that served really well and kept us out of our system a little bit. When we were in-system, we scored points on them and we did well.

“I told the girls: ‘Maybe it didn’t go our way tonight, but it wasn’t because of lack of effort.'”

Carney’s Taylor Kedsch — who ended the match with 12 kills — spiked it right into AHOC’s libero, Olivia Colletti, to make it 24-20, but the Lancers’ Kaylee Page spiked it in between Wolves defenders to earn the fourth set and the match.

The Wolves finish the season with a record of 23-2.