The Bermuda women’s national volleyball team took the bronze medal in the Bermuda Open at Warwick Academy gym on Saturday.

The Island Girls defeated Lobster Pot, the Bermuda Masters team, 25-13, 25-21 in the bronze medal game, staging a furious comeback to win the second set after conceding the first eight points.

The first set could not have started more differently, with the Island Girls starting the match on a 5-0 run.

It came to an end with Bermuda using a combination of power and precision, particularly from Christina Duff and Kathryn Dyck, to clinch a set that they never looked like losing.

They were out of sorts, however, to begin the second stanza, with a cross-court winner from Melisa Judd finally getting them on the scoreboard after Lobster Pot had taken an 8-0 lead.

Allison Lacoursiere drew Bermuda ever closer, with a spike to make it 15-17 before she tied the scores at 17-17.

They would not trail again, and secured the victory off a powerful serve from Judd.

Island Girls head coach Elisabeth Rae was actually playing for Lobster Pot in the bronze-medal game and, understandably, had mixed feelings about the way Bermuda started the second set.

“I was happy that the team I was playing with was starting to play, but then I was more concerned with the team I was coaching — why are they giving points away unnecessarily?” she said.

“The main goal was for them to play other competition and to play good competition. As coaches, we have a lot of takeaways from today. We know what we need to go back and work on in practice, we know where they struggled, we know their weaknesses, we know their strengths and we just have to work on improving the weaknesses.”

Next up for the Island Girls are the 2017 NatWest Island Games, in Gotland, Sweden, from June 24 to 30.

Mount Allison University, from Sackville, New Brunswick, won the gold-medal match, beating fellow Canadians Bia Volleyball Club, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, in three sets behind the powerful play of Rachel Van Gestel.

As well as the national team, Bermuda entered two junior teams to the event, the Paradise Hitters and Junior Hitters.

SQUADS

Island Girls: Allison Settle-Smith, Allison Lacoursiere, Amber Lopes, Brenda Dalida, Christina Duff, Kathryn Dyck, Melisa Judd, Rebeka Sousa, Nicole Volek. Coaches: Elisabeth Rae, Bill Bucci.

Paradise Hitters: Sy McPeek, Leticia Lima-Ferriera, Monique Cordeiro, Kelly Pedro, Caroline Amaral, Savannah Loder, Chanara Smith-Rookes, Katrina McPhee, Kamryn Martins, Cailey Longworth, Taylor Gazzard, Mackenzie Pearman. Coach: Gary LeBlanc.

Junior Hitters: Erin Cardoso, Kamryn Martins, Olivia Taylor, Cailey Longworth, Yhanelia Campbell, Sophia Stevens, Lysmerie Herrera, Ashley Steede, Alexa Soldok, Zori Seymour, Taylor Gazzard, Mackenzie Pearman. Coaches: Lisa LeBlanc, Allison Settle-Smith.