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Rockets soar past Jets, 3-0

Justin St. Ours | Escanaba Daily Press North Central’s Andie Arsenault (15) jumps to block a shot from Rapid River’s Cecilia Pilon (17) Thursday's Skyline Central Conference match at Rapid River.

By Justin St. Ours

For The Daily News

RAPID RIVER — Both teams were out of sync Thursday in Rapid River, but the Rockets used their home court to their advantage and held it together to earn a win over the North Central Jets 3-0 (25-7, 25-13, 25-18).

Whatever the reason, it was an unfocused Jets team that began the match.

“We were pretty lackluster as a team,” Jets’ coach Rick Mick said. “We didn’t have much focus in the beginning, and it showed. They jumped on us quick and really put the pedal down in the first set.”

The second set was nearly the same story, as the Rockets quickly pulled ahead of the Jets. By the end of the set, Rapid River led 21-10 before a serve into the net gave it back to the Jets.

It was another serve into the net, except this time on the Jets’ side, that followed.

“We still made some very, very untimely mis-serves, and I think that really bit us today,” Mick said. “Well, they miss one and we miss one, and that doesn’t help anything.”

North Central gained possession twice more but couldn’t string anything together, and Rapid River’s Gabby Moss finished the set, 25-13, with a spike.

“I don’t think we really got to the scrappy team that we’ve become until the third set,” Mick said. “We still made a lot of errors — our own errors. We did get better after every set, and we did show more resolve in the third set than we did in the first and second.”

The Rockets’ Gracie Stemick earned the first point of the third set with a tip over, and Moss added an ace and spike to push the Rockets to 3-0.

However, another Rapid River serve landed out of bounds and allowed the Jets to tie it at 3 after an ace from Ariel Poupore.

“We’ve been improving a lot — especially with our serving, but we dropped back down tonight a little bit,” Rockets coach Kristy Kerstner said. “We missed too many serves tonight.”

After small successes, the Jets stalled, with their next four points coming solely from Rockets mistakes while falling behind 14-7.

After a Rapid River ball went into the net, the Jets’ Andie Arsenault put together a short run that included two aces to reduce their deficit to 14-11.

“She doesn’t normally serve that aggressively, but I think she saw it was a time that we needed something,” Mick said. “So, she stuck her neck out a little more and got a couple nice ones in a row.”

Despite making up some ground, North Central couldn’t close beyond three points offered multiple opportunities to the Rockets with serving errors.

“We had a lot of opportunities to run our offense tonight, but it did not happen,” Kerstner said. “But, we still pulled through and pulled out the win.”

Moss once again finished the set and the match with a spike, 25-18.

North Central hosts Munising Tuesday, and Rapid River, whose JV won, travels to Bark River-Harris Thursday.

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