NEWPORT — Bill Boardman fully expected his Gardiner volleyball team to have some sluggishness given what it had done the match before.

A grueling five-set win over a Cony team that hadn’t lost a set all season prior to its defeat to the Tigers last week was always going to be hard to follow up. The rust Boardman expected did show (albeit later than expected), but it didn’t stop Gardiner from continuing its red-hot start.

Gardiner bounced back from a tough loss in the second set to claim a four-game (25-11, 21-25, 25-19, 25-19) road victory over Nokomis on Wednesday. The win was the sixth in a row for the Tigers, who haven’t lost since dropping their season opener to Ellsworth three weeks ago.

“I thought we were going to come out a little flat after a grueling win like that, and we kind of were in that second set,” Boardman said. “We just have that grit to us, and when we got down, we just went back to what we did in the first set with that grit and toughness.”

Gardiner (6-1) got off to a torrid start, taking 12 of the first 14 points to establish a 10-point lead. Nokomis would fire back with six of the next seven points, but after the Tigers broke serve, Camden Genest served five straight points to re-establish the double-light lead as the visitors breezed to an opening-set win.

Nokomis, though, would bounce back in a hard-fought second set. Trailing 14-11, the Warriors (3-4) claimed nine of the next 12 points to gain a 20-17 advantage. Gardiner then won four of the next five to tie it at 21, but Nokomis hit back with the next four to knot the match at a game apiece.

“We had a little bit of a rough time with communication, but I think we really pulled it out in the end,” said Gardiner sophomore Zarah Kristan. “We really worked on it; we had a lot of determination.”

Gardiner’s Julie Folsom celebrates a point scored against Nokomis during a girls volleyball game Wednesday in Newport. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

After Gardiner went down 11-9 in the third set, that determination showed as it notched 10 of the next 11 points to establish a comfortable lead. Nokomis fought back down 24-15 with four straight points, but a long volley then ended with a Warriors return landing just out of bounds as the Tigers took the set.

The fourth set was the most competitive yet with the two teams tied 19-19 through the first 38 points. Yet after Gardiner sided out to take a one-point lead, Kristan served five straight points to give the visitors game and match victories in a tough Class B showdown.

“She goes in right there in that spot, and that’s exactly why she’s in the lineup,” Boardman said. “She’s in there to do exactly what she did for us tonight. She really delivered for us to close it out.”

The win propelled Gardiner into third place in a tough statewide Class B, where 10 teams are 4-2 or better. The key to the Tigers’ recent run of success, Kristan and Genest said? “Hype.”

“We definitely hype each other up when we’re down,” Genest said. “We bring each other up; we just love each other.”