Jacy Zollar, sports@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Jacy Zollar The Menominee Indian High School volleyball team celebrates a long rally during its home win over Marion on Thursday.
Leader Photo by Jacy Zollar Menominee Indian High School senior Sequoia Salgado hit six consecutive service aces in Set 1 to lead the Eagles to a home win over Marion on Thursday.
Six consecutive service aces by Sequoia Salgado energized Menominee Indian in its sweep of Marion in a nonconference match Thursday in Keshena.
Eagles’ errors helped Marion build a 10-5 lead to start Set 1, but Salgado’s string of service aces put the Eagles ahead by one.
“That’s the first time I’ve had a string of aces like that so it felt really great,” the senior said, “but the best part was seeing our girls get the momentum after that. That energy was exciting.”
“We definitely felt the flow of the game change after those serves,” Menominee Indian head coach Jackson Miller said. “They needed that little burst of energy to get them going, get them in the game.”
Menominee Indian used that spark and rallied to a 17-11 lead. The Mustangs answered with five points to trail by one, but Marion (1-20, 0-6 Central Wisconsin Conference-North) couldn’t regain the lead. A Cierra Maulson tip brought the Eagles to set point, and a Mustang out-of-bounds hit gave the Eagles the game, 25-19.
The Mustangs started Set 2 with a string of errors to give Menominee Indian (6-9, 0-6 Central Wisconsin Conference-East) a 6-1 lead. The Eagles capitalized on Marion mistakes and breezed to a 17-7 lead, but Marion battled back to tie the game 20-20. A Jalen Corn attack put Menominee Indian in the lead, and back-to-back Kaylee Helms service aces won the match 25-22.
A Marion hitting error gave Menominee Indian the first point of Set 3, and the Eagles built a 5-0 lead before the Mustangs got on the board. The Eagles cruised to a 12-4 lead, gave up eight of the next 10 points and then held the Mustangs to just one point before Faith Munson’s kill ended the match 25-13.
“I’m proud with how they finished in the last set,” Miller said. “We had a lot of hitting errors ourselves in the first set. That’s always something we struggle with. We’ve been working hard on keeping our hits in and making the other team earn each point. But we got better as the game went on, and I think that’s a big part of the win tonight.”