News Photo by Owen Kinzey The Alpena High School girls volleyball team, in the near court, takes on Traverse City Central at the Wildcats’ gym on Wednesday evening.

ALPENA — The Alpena High School varsity volleyball team faced off against Traverse City Central on Wednesday night.

The Trojans powered past the Wildcats, winning all three sets by scores of 10-25, 18-25, and 6-25.

Alpena’s offense and defense were lacking in some areas, but receiving out-of-system balls was a success for most of the night. Still, the Trojan’s ability to kill the ball over the Wildcats’ blocks led them to victory.

“I’m super happy with how we played in the second set,” Alpena coach Kolby Andrews said. “We held our own against a very talented Traverse City team, and I thought our offense and defense was the best that game than it has been all season.”

The Wildcats struggled to gain the lead from the start to finish of the first set.

An early 3-6 score led to Alpena going down even further by 8-17. TCC finished off the set, only allowing two more points for the Wildcats and scoring eight of its own.

Although the first set wasn’t a favorable matchup for the Wildcats, the second set showed lots of promise and potential to withstand good competition.

Alpena even started the second set with a lead by a score of 6-4. That lead slowly trickled away as the Wildcats fell to 7-11 when the Trojans would not let up its offensive attack.

Eventually, TCC came home with the 18-25 win despite Alpena’s incredible effort.

The third set was completely dominated by Central and its tremendously tall players.

A 0-6 hole put Alpena in a terrible position with almost no chance of winning from the start.

The Wildcats scored a few points here and there, but it was utter domination by the Trojans and its outside hitters. Several kills were completed and were struck so hard that Alpena was left with no answer to stop them.

In no time, TCC finished the 6-25 win to complete the 3-0 sweep.

“We knew going into tonight that we weren’t going to get many open nets and looks because of their height advantage,” Andrews said. “We were able to contend with them for the first two sets, but we definitely let the third set get away from us.”

Alpena takes on Tawas on Monday for senior night.

Laurel Alberts and Olivia Precord led the Wildcats in digs, both finishing with three apiece.

Alpena’s kills were led by Sydney Hitzelberger and Precord, who had two each.

The Wildcats’ assist leader was Avery Dubey, with five.