NORTON SHORES – The Mona Shores volleyball team hosted a mental health awareness night on Tuesday, and wore “Be Kind” warm-up shirts prior to its conference match with Reeths-Puffer.

The Sailors thanked the Rockets for getting in the spirit of things and wearing the “Be Kind” shirts themselves.

But the Rockets’ kindness was limited to the pregame ceremonies. They very much wanted to beat the Sailors, a rival that has won most of the matches between the teams in recent years, including both matchups last season.

They visitors did so in convincing fashion with a 3-1 victory in an O-K Green rivalry clash at Mona Shores High School. The set scores were 25-17, 25-18, 18-25 and 25-19.

Reeths-Puffer’s Brianna Stawski goes up for a kill.

Reeths-Puffer improved to 8-9 on the season and 2-2 in conference play, while the Sailors dropped to 8-11 and 1-3.

Reeths-Puffer Coach Justin Birr noted that the two programs have a very cooperative relationship, and many of the players on the two teams are friends, but winning is still the point of it all.

“It has always been a rivalry game,” Birr said. “Shores has been the ‘Big Brother’ for a while. So it’s exciting to get a win against them today. This day was definitely one we circled on the calendar at the beginning of the season. But it’s not that these girls hate each other, they are friends off the court.”

The Sailors scored the first point of the match, but the Rockets quickly took the lead and never relinquished it through the entire first set, which they won 25-17.

Juniors Billie Tryska and Sophia Hekkema each had long service runs for the Rockets, along with senior Brianna Stawski.

Mona Shores scored the first point of the second set, as well, but again trailed the rest of the way. Tryska had a long service run and scored a few points in front of the net for the Rockets, who went up 2-0 with a 25-18 win.

Despite being soundly beaten in the first two sets, the Sailors refused to give up. They jumped out to an early 6-3 lead in the third set and held on the rest of the way, winning 25-18. Senior Grace Norris had a long service run for the Sailors while junior Ava Dunn played well in front of the net.

“They will never give up,” Mona Shores Coach Kathy Hellmann said about her squad. “They have such good chemistry. We had some struggles early on, but we turned it around.”

The turnaround did not last long, however.

The Sailors kept the momentum early in the fourth set by taking a 4-1 lead, but Reeths-Puffer closed the gap and neither team had more than a two-point lead for most of the way.

The Rockets finally pulled away, closing the set and match with an 8-2 run to break a 17-17 tie. Stawski iced the victory with two consecutive kills at the end of the match.

Reeths-Puffer was led by Stawski with 20 kills while Hekkema added 11. Tryska chipped in with six aces.

The Rockets were led defensively by Leah Ellis and Allison McManus with 20 and 11 digs, respectively.

Grace Norris had 10 kills and 15 assists to lead the Sailors, while Lauren Morea paced Mona Shores defensively with nine digs.