Ryan Spitza/Mining Journal photo | West Iron County’s Mya Grubbs serves in the Wykons' volleyball match against Westwood at the Patriots' gym on Thursday night.

ISHPEMING — Westwood High School volleyball head coach Milton Braga called Thursday’s home match against West Iron County his team’s best performance of the season.

After a slow start, the Patriots took the Wykons toe to toe for the remainder of the evening before falling short in four sets.

West Iron (2-2) won 25-19, 18-25, 25-21 and 25-16.

Westwood (0-5) appeared to wake up after the Set 1 loss, when it was down by as many as 10 points, and roared back to win Set 2. From that point on, the match remained tight.

The Set 2 loss was a familiar one for Wykons head coach Brenda Grubbs, but it also seemed to get her team back on track to take the final two sets.

“Historically, when I come here, there is always one set that’s just haywire like that, where we can get nothing to flow,” she said. “Historically, my teams have always had one set like that. Then we just come back, get back into a rhythm and do it again.

“I don’t know what it is. Confidence, mentality, we just can’t get the ball to fall right in those situations.

“It’s important not to hang your head. We just keep coaching and telling them “We’re not done yet, and we just keep working.”

The Wykons pulled away for their Set 1 win, which ended on a kill from senior Courtney Reitmeyer.

The Patriots claimed Set 2 on a double-hit violation that led into a third set that was nothing short of competitive.

With the Wykons up 19-18, a kill by Westwood junior Shianne Rodda knotted things up before West Iron tallied the next three points on an attack error and consecutive service aces from Reitmeyer to go up 22-19.

Westwood got within one point at 22-21 on a kill from senior Kaitlin Ackland before the Wykons notched the final three points of the set on a kill from junior McKenna Kegley and two attack errors.

The Patriots went down swinging, slowing the Wykons out of the gate in the fourth set by taking the first four points and going up 5-1. West Iron earned the next five, taking the lead 6-5 on a service ace from junior Jordan Shamion. The teams remained deadlocked before the Wykons went up 12-8 on an ace from Reitmeyer, sending Westwood into a timeout.

Westwood could only get within four points the rest of the way, and the match ended on a block from the Wykons’ front line.

West Iron County goes to the Forest Park Invitational on Saturday.