(EagleHerald/Brian Bell photo) Kingsford's Talia Wallis tips a ball over the net while teammates Grace Roberts (22) and Emma Andrews (gray shirt) look on during Monday's match against Menominee.

By BRIAN BELL

For The Daily News

MENOMINEE — The Flivvers were simply too much to handle here Monday, sweeping Great Northern Conference foe Menominee in three straight sets, 25-11, 25-20, 25-11.

“In the first two games I thought we played really well,” Menominee coach Sarah Betzinger said. “The first set the score didn’t show it, but our passing was really good, we were setting it up and hitting it and we just played well.”

Menominee hung around with Kingsford in the set, trailing 14-8 before the Flivvers went on a 6-1 run highlighted by two kills from Grace Roberts to take a 20-9 advantage. Roberts then went on a serving run of four points including two aces. Talia Wallis ended the set for Kingsford with a kill to win 25-11.

The second set started with both teams trading serves back and forth until Kingsford grabbed a 9-6 lead with Wallis doing the serving, but Kingsford could never get its serves going in the second game and that allowed Menominee to stay in it.

“One thing we talked about in set two is it seemed like we were missing a lot of serves,” Kingsford coach Jaclynn Kreider said. “I think it’s hard for us to keep momentum when we step up and miss serves, so right off the bat that’s the first thing that went against us.

“Another thing is we didn’t really run our tempo. We tend to be a faster tempo team and we just didn’t seem to find any rhythm and I think that was part of the problem too.”

Kingsford was able to pull away on the Maroons in the second set to grab a 14-8 lead, but Menominee refused to go away and fought back until the game was knotted at 17 after Lani Holmes served for five straight points.

The Flivvers then took a two-point lead, but a kill from Erin Olson kept Menominee within one (19-18) and an ace from Laura Magrane made it 21-20.

After a Maroon serve into the net, Kingsford’s Emma Andrews stepped to the service line and rattled off three straight aces to end the game, 25-20.

With Kingsford leading 14-8 in the final set, Danika Varda strung together a run of eight straight points with five aces including three in a row that really took the life out of the Maroons.

“For whatever reason in the third game it felt like we gave up,” Betzinger said. “I could see they were getting frustrated and that compounds the issue, but I don’t really have an answer. We had poor communication and it was just the opposite of the second set.”

The match ended on an ace from Roberts.

“I kind of challenged the girls in the end of set two on serving so when they stepped up to the line there was focus, and they stayed disciplined and weren’t getting relaxed with their serves and we did that well in the last game,” Kreider said.

Leading Menominee with a nice all-around game was Joey VanBeek with two points, two aces, one kill and five assists; Magrane added two aces and four digs; Kayla Drifka had seven hits, one kill and four assists and Lani Holmes had six points and seven digs.

For Kingsford, Wallis, Abby Terrian and Christy Glodowski each had four kills; Katherine Erickson had 15 assists and Emma Andrews and Wallis each had seven digs.

Kingsford won the JV match 25-11, 17-25, 25-17.

Kingsford hosts Gladstone Thursday.