Kingsford’s Abby Terrian, front right, gets her finger caught in the net after a kill attempt through the defense of Marquette’s Maria Millado, left, and Katelyn Dunleavy in the second set of the Redette Rumble finals held at Marquette Senior High School on Saturday. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

“Any time we can (play) Marquette, even if we come out on the (losing) end of it, it’s an opportunity for us to get better and learn.” — Jaclynn Kreider, head coach, Kingsford volleyball

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MARQUETTE — The Marquette varsity volleyball team continued its dominance this season by sweeping through its Redette Rumble tournament held at Marquette Senior High School on Saturday.

Five Marquette County teams — including host Marquette varsity and its JV squad — took to the court in a nine-team tournament. Team were divided into two pools, with the top two teams advancing to the semifinals.

Marquette and Gwinn each advanced out of the Red pool, while Ishpeming, Westwood and the Redettes’ JV fell short of that goal.

The Redettes didn’t drop a single set en route to the title, including wins over Gwinn, Westwood and Ironwood in pool play, Brimley in the semis and Kingsford in the championship match.

MSHS knocked off Brimley, 25-16, 25-11, while Kingsford dispatched Gwinn, 25-18, 25-17, in the semifinals to set up a championship match between two teams that hadn’t dropped a set in the tournament up to that point.

Marquette ended the day on a high note, sweeping the Flivvers in two sets, 25-21, 25-15. Combining for 67 kills in the team’s five matches, Maria Millado had 39 of those kills and Roxy Nelson 28.

Nelson also had 30 digs, while Millado and Ella Jezewski each had 22. Katelyn Dunleavy finished with 64 assists and Piper Lakenen added 22.

Arlie Kulbieda and Taylor Marquardt each had 14 service aces for the Redettes as Millado came away with 13.

Maddy Kreider led Kingsford through the tournament with 30 assists, 23 aces and 16 kills. Allie Lavarnway finished with 18 assists and Abby Terrian had 13 kills. Emma Andrews had 21 digs to lead KHS, and Talia Wallis had 11.

The Redettes had defeated Kingsford in four sets on Sept. 16 and carried that into Saturday’s tournament without leader player Seiler Hruska.

Marquette is a different team without her, according to Kingsford head coach Jaclynn Kreider, but MSHS had girls step up to knock the Flivvers back on their heels.

“I mean, Marquette’s a good team, right?,” Kreider said. “We knew it was going to be a battle. I think we didn’t play at our potential, we had some serve receives that we got stuck in where they were able to run off a lot of points. I think then we got into our own heads and kind of beat ourselves up a little bit, too, and created more errors.

“Obviously, we have a hard time stopping Maria (Millado). You know, we love playing Marquette, so any time we can (play) Marquette, even if we come out on the other end of it, it’s an opportunity for us to get better and learn from.”

The Redettes didn’t win without a fight, and despite losing both sets, the Flivvers were Marquette’s biggest challenge at the tournament.

Kingsford played tough, according to Redettes coach Ann Crandell-Williams, and Marquette came into the first set playing tentatively on offense. Once Marquette was able to get into a groove, the offense evolved as the match wore on.

“Kingsford is a very scrappy team and they played well defensively,” Crandell-Williams said. “They just kept bringing it back and bringing it back and bringing it back. We really had to sort of find a balance between playing aggressively and still not making a lot of errors.”

High school matches are often best-of-five sets, but the Redette Rumble featured abbreviated two-set matchups in pool play and best-of-three in the semis and finals.

Marquette defeated Gwinn 25-13, 25-14, Ironwood 25-7, 25-18 and Westwood 25-7, 25-17 in pool play to qualify as the No. 1 seed out of the Red pool.

Gwinn notched two victories with wins over Ironwood 25-13, 25-22 and Westwood 25-8, 25-7 to advance as the Red pool’s No. 2 seed. Westwood had one more match against Ironwood, but the Patriots came up short, 25-8, 25-8.

Ishpeming and Marquette’s JV team competed in the White pool with Brimley, Kingsford and Menominee. The Hematites won a set each against the Marquette JV and Brimley, but were swept by Kingsford 25-16, 25-21 and Menominee 25-19, 27-25.

The Redette JV held its own on the varsity stage, including winning both sets over Menominee in the final match of pool play. Kingsford didn’t drop a set as the pool’s No. 1 seed with Brimley No. 2.

“It was a good day because it was an opportunity for us to, in a lot of the sets, be able to let everyone contribute and try some different lineups and some different things,” Kingsford’s Kreider said. “That’s what I like about tournaments, is seeing opportunities that we can have to try to change it up and get everybody involved.”

Marquette’s Millado and Nelson were named to the all-tournament team and joined by Kingsford’s Maddy Kreider and Andrews, Gwinn’s Jordana Hardy and Brimley’s Alana VanderMeer.

Winning a tournament at home like this will give a team confidence moving forward, Crandell-Williams said.

“I think they did all the things all day,” Crandell-Williams said. “I mean they just played very solidly, sometimes when you play against different teams, it’s easy to sort of play down, like be all over the place.

“But I think they played their game all day, so they served aggressively, they served consistently, they passed well, and when they do those things, the offense really comes together. I’m really proud of them.”

Travis Nelson can be reached by email at tnelson@miningjournal.net.