MARQUETTE — The Marquette Senior High School volleyball team suffered another loss against one of the quality teams in the Upper Peninsula, on Tuesday coming in four sets at Houghton.

The Gremlins prevailed 25-15, 25-19, 21-25, 25-14.

Houghton (6-2) is the No. 2 team in Divisions 1-3 of the first U.P. high school volleyball poll that was released Wednesday by the U.P. Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.

Marquette fell to 3-7 as its last four matches have come against the top four teams in the Division 1-3 rankings — losses to No. 1 Kingsford and No. 4 Calumet and a victory over No. 3 Negaunee while also taking the loss to the No. 2 Gremlins.

“(We) battled on the road against Houghton, showing strong moments throughout the match but ultimately falling short,” Sentinels head coach Melissa Butler said. “Marquette continues to grow as a team and show progress each week.”

The road coming back home doesn’t get a whole lot easier for Marquette, which faces D 1-3 vote-getter Escanaba at home at 7 p.m. today, then has another home match against Gwinn at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

In that first U.P. volleyball poll, Kingsford (10-0) drew all three first-place votes from a select group of UPSSA members in Divisions 1-3 and 15 polling points, while Houghton was second with 11.

Negaunee (11-4-2) was right behind the Gremlins with 10 points, while Calumet (5-4) had six points and No. 5 Jeffers (5-5) had two. Escanaba (6-6-1) just missed the top five with one voting point.

In Division 4, near-perfect Forest Park (20-1) was also a unanimous No. 1 with all three first-place votes and 15 points. The Trojans’ only loss came in the season-opening Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart Irish Invitational to Saginaw Valley Lutheran after beating that downstate team earlier in the event.

Hancock (12-2-2) is No. 2 in D-4 with 12 voting points, Ishpeming (11-2-1) No. 3 with eight points, Lake Linden-Hubbell (17-2) No. 4 with seven points and Munising (10-5-1) No. 5 with two points.

Ewen-Trout Creek (6-1) just missed the top five with one voting point.

Ishpeming’s only losses are to a pair of top-five teams from Divisions 1-3 — a five-setter at Negaunee on Sept. 11 and a four-setter at home vs. Calumet on Tuesday. The Hematites also have a pair of victories over Munising and one over D 1-3 top-five Jeffers.

Story contents based on email received from MSHS head coach Melissa Butler. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.