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GARDEN CORNERS - The Big Bay de Noc volleyball season came to a crushing end here Thursday Night as the Rapid River Rockets rallied for a 3-2 victory (23-25, 18-25, 25-22, 25-13, 15-13) in a district semifinal matchup.

"It was a hard fought match, but we won and that's all I care about right now," said Rapid River coach Jackie Augustine.

For a while, it looked like Big Bay would repeat their Tuesday performance when they swept Hannahville. The Black Bears won the first two games and led 16-12 in game three when the momentum started to shift in the Rockets' favor.

"I think we realized our season could be over and they decided it was time to start hitting," Augustine said. "We really got a spark from Courtney (Valiquette), Rikki (Prescott) and Heather (Sanderson) in that fifth game."

Down two games to none, Valiquette says the thought of losing definitely crossed her mind. "I was scared, but as a team, we wanted to play more games, so we turned things up a notch."

Despite the loss, Big Bay coach John Peterson was actually pleased with the way his team played.

"We've struggled with Rapid River all year and they always find a way to beat us," said Peterson. "But I thought we took it to them (the Rockets) tonight, a lot of the games were close and hard fought."

Peterson could sense the momentum changing to Rapid River about halfway through the third game.

"The first two games we played nice and easy volleyball," he said. "But after that, I thought we tensed up and tried too hard and that's when things started to go downhill for us."

After the match, Peterson took a few moments to reflect on the season just ended.

"I think we had an awesome season this year," Peterson said. "We improved tremendously from last year. I had a great group of girls who got along really well. We went from five wins a year ago to a 10-9 record overall this season. We did a great job."

The Rockets advance to Engadine at 7 p.m. Saturday for the district championship. Engadine defeated Rapid River 3-1 in the Rockets' second match of the season. Augustine says the Rockets have changed a bit since the earlier meeting.

"Our rotation right now is different than when we played them the first time so I think we should be better than what they saw."

Rapid River - Valiquette (12 digs, eight kills); Sanderson (12 digs, six kills, four blocks); Prescott (four kills); Hough (22 assists, nine digs); Brockway (five kills); Martin (four aces, three digs); Parrotta (24 digs, three aces).