IRON RIVER – On just the seventh point of their opening volleyball match of the 2025 season against Escanaba on Wednesday, the West Iron County Wykons suffered a significant setback.

After a brief rally, sophomore Bristol Shamion went down clutching her right ankle after she stepped on a teammate’s foot. An eerie silence pervaded Charles Greenlund Gymnasium as Shamion was helped to her feet and off the court.

The abrupt mood change stemmed from the fact that Shamion, a multitalented, multisport athlete with great promise, had already suffered two significant injuries last winter during her initial basketball season – a sprained left ankle in December that kept her out for a couple of weeks and then a broken foot in early January that ended her season.

WIC coach Konnor Bjorkman called a timeout as her disheartened players strolled to the bench. But something happened when the Wykons returned to the floor. The squad, with just two seniors in its starting lineup, stood up and fought.

And that resilience led to a rather shocking 25-17, 25-16, 25-23 sweep of the Eskymos.

Senior setter/outside hitter Lily DeSousa recorded nine kills and senior middle Lacey Shamion had four kills, three blocks and an ace to lift West Iron to the victory.

“I think that we came back really hard after Bristol got hurt,” DeSousa said. “I’m really proud of how we played because obviously Bristol’s a very good player and we all thought we were going to be down, but we came back and won. It was great.”

Bjorkman admitted her surprise to how her new team reacted.

“I’m not going to lie, when (Bristol) went down I was nervous,” she said. “(The injury) was defeating for everybody. It’s defeating for her. But my returning players were like, ‘You know, we can either choose to fill the hole and do our best or we can choose to be upset.’

“And they clearly made the choice to step up.”

Tied at 16-all, the Wykons went on a 9-1 run to secure the opening set. Lacey Shamion served an ace, DeSousa smacked a kill and diminutive junior Cami Alexa blocked an Escanaba overpass to spark the run.

At times the match looked like a season-opener with some sloppy stretches. But while the Wykons were able to play through their miscues, Escanaba was not. The Eskymos seemed out of sync all match long as poor passing forced them to consistently play out of system and errant serving stopping any possible momentum.

The one streak the Eskymos did put together came at the start of the second set when they scored the first five points. But West Iron countered with a 13-3 run to go up 13-8 and kept the lead from there.

DeSousa posted two kills to start the surge before Lacey Shamion came up with two kills and a block later in the set. Alexa served an ace and sophomore Addi Bortolameolli added a kill to close out the set and put Escanaba on the brink of elimination.

And that’s what happened in the third set. Though the Eskymos stayed in the set to the end, the Wykons were the team that came up with the winning plays. After swinging hard on her kills attempts nearly the whole match, DeSousa deftly rolled a shot into a hole in the Esky defense to give her team a 22-20 lead.

Two points later, Alexa found an empty corner for a push to move her team closer to the finish line. Shortly after, Bortolameolli shoved her team over the line with a kill as West Iron clinched the sweep.

The Wykons appeared to be a more versatile squad this year, in part because of the addition of junior Kayla Erickson to the varsity squad. With Erickson able to set, Bjorkman can move DeSousa to the outside where the strongly built senior can provide a big offensive punch.

“Adding in another setter really helped,” Bjorkman said. “I mean, Lily was a powerhouse tonight and people didn’t get to see that last year.”

“I enjoy setting, but hitting’s really fun,” DeSousa said with a smile.

West Iron also displayed quickness in its defensive coverage with Alexa and junior libero Grace House leading that effort.

Both teams will compete at the Kingsford Invitational on Saturday. Bristol Shamion is not expected to play for West Iron and her return to the lineup has not been determined.