Emma Gentry gave the Alpena volleyball team the spark it needed on Monday.

The junior hitter had nine kills and helped the Wildcats earn a three-set victory over Ogemaw Heights, 25-8, 25-10, 25-19.

The win provides the Wildcats with a confidence booster ahead of Wednesday’s home matchup with Traverse City Central and Alpena coach Stacey McEwen said it was one of the best matches the Wildcats have played this season.

“With a team that has so many different levels as far as age and having not played together, having something like this (victory) is amazing for their confidence level,” McEwen said. “Everybody’s lifted up and is more confident in what they’re doing.”

At the front of Alpena’s win Monday was Gentry who slammed down hits with authority and sparked a big night for Alpena’s offense. Kaityln Schultz added five kills and junior setter Allison Precord made the offense run smoothly with 18 assists.

“Emma did a great job. Once she feels the good kill, then you know she’s going to be on,” McEwen said. “It just takes her one good kill to spark up and it feels like when Emma gets a good kill, it sparks up the entire team.”

“I do have to give some credit to my setter, Allison Precord. She was setting up some good hits tonight.”

Alpena’s offense got going right away as the Wildcats stormed out to a 7-1 lead to begin the first set, thanks in part to two kills and a tip from Maggie Clark and a kill from Gentry.

Attacking errors allowed the Falcons to close the gap a little before Alpena took off again, turning an 8-5 lead into a 21-6 lead with Gentry, Katie Mack and Shelby Seaver among those scoring points. One stretch of five volleys ended with a pair of kills from Mack and two from Gentry.

The Wildcats kept up the offense into the second set and began on an 11-1 run. Madison Murphy had three aces during the run and Gentry had a kill and a shared block with Seaver.

Ogemaw later made it 14-9, but the Wildcats were never in danger of losing their lead and closed the set out on another 11-1 run.

The Falcons were able to hold their own better in the final set and traded points with the Wildcats in the early going. The two sides played to a 7-7 tie early and later on the Falcons rallied for three consecutive points to take a brief 10-9 lead; only it’s second lead of the night. Alpena couldn’t pull away from Ogemaw until late and the Falcons stayed close long enough to tie the set 18-18.

From there the rest of the set belonged to the Wildcats, Seaver gave Alpena the lead for good with a kill and Alpena scored seven of the final eight points to win the match. Schultz had two kills in Alpena’s last run, Rachel McDonald had an ace and Gentry fittingly ended the night with one last kill.

“I think we played a lot better than how we’ve been playing. I think we finally hit a spot where we’re coming together as a team and we’re building chemistry which I like,” McEwen said. “They’re talking to each other more and they executed offenses, so as a whole today is one of the best games they’ve had.”

James Andersen can be reached via email at sports@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5694. Follow James on Twitter @ja_alpenanews.