CALUMET — The high school volleyball postseason got underway Wednesday night with Calumet hosting Westwood in an MHSAA Division 3 district tournament semifinal match.

The Copper Kings eliminated Westwood in three sets, 25-9, 25-11, 25-8.

Calumet advanced to take on Hancock for the district championship on Thursday. The Bulldogs downed Ishpeming, also in three sets, on Wednesday in their semifinal.

“The girls played well tonight and controlled the ball well,” Calumet coach Kate Bonacorsi said of her team’s match vs. Westwood.

She noted that sets were won by ball control at the line. Long service runs were the name of the game for the Copper Kings.

After a brief 2-0 lead by the Patriots to open, the Copper Kings’ Allison Bjorn posted five unanswered points. She was followed by Laina Kariniemi, who put together a run of eight to make it 17-4 lead that led to winning the set.

In the second set, the Patriots scored their most points but could not fend off a powerful swing from Calumet’s captain Helen Beiring nor Bjorn. Beiring had 11 kills on the night and Bjorn knocked down seven.

The pair were a force to be reckoned with on Wednesday night just like during the regular season.

Patriots coach Tamara Johnson knew this coming into the match as her team had faced the mighty Copper Kings once already this season.

“They (Calumet) are good and strong,” she said. “We wanted to work on our block coverage and our pass receive coming into tonight. I guess we did OK — better than last time.”

Jackie Kiilunen started off the third set with a run of five. She finished with an impressive nine aces on the night, much to the delight of her coach.

“When you control the first touch of the ball, then you control the game, whether that is at the service line or serve-receive,” Bonacorsi said. “Both of those came together well for us tonight.”

While the Patriots season came to an end, not all was lost, according to Johnson.

“We had a good season,” she said. “These were girls who worked hard and grew tremendously as the year went on. It was a great group to work with.”