November 17, 2017 at 11:58 a.m.
Team review: RHS volleyball
Hodags spikers finish near .500 with senior-laden squad
Team review: RHS volleyball
There were highs and lows for the team this season. The Hodags went 15-19-3 overall and finished in fifth place in the Great Northern Conference with a 5-7 league mark.
All things considered, by the end of the season, Wawrzynowicz said she was pleased with the production she got from a senior-laden squad.
"I told them they did better than I expected them coming into the season," she said following a playoff loss at Northland Pines. "We got some good wins this year. We played with a lot of (teams). I couldn't ask for anything more. It was a good group. I never had any issues or anything like that. I told them to hold their heads high. I know that doesn't help right now, but it will."
Some of the other main storylines from the 2017 season:
Lots of Hope
The Hodags' standout player was undoubtedly Hope Wissbroecker.
The 6-foot senior led the GNC in kills per set (5.4) and attacking percentage (.371). She was second in total kills (239) and blocks (43) and fifth in digs per set (4.2) as she earned conference player of the year honors.
At times, Wissbroecker was simply unstoppable.
"Everyone said she had the numbers and deserved what she got," Wawrzynowicz said. "Obviously, I believe Hope was the best player, by far, in the conference this year ... To be honest, without her, I'm not sure we would have had the wins we had this year."
What held the Hodags back from making a serious push in the GNC was the lack of a second or third strong weapon to complement Wissbroecker, who accounted for nearly 61 percent of the team's kills in conference play. Seniors Molly Wagler, Cami Buchmann and Ally Seefeldt had 38, 36 and 31 kills, respectively.
Seefeldt was moved into more of a hitter's role midseason after the team went to a 6-2 system that allowed her and fellow senior Makayla Kuester to split time at setter.
Tough at home
Five of Rhinelander's 15 wins this season came at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
The Hodags posted a 5-1 record on their home court, which included two of their biggest wins of the season.
Rhinelander pulled off a stunning three-game sweep over Antigo Sept. 7 and then fended off Northland Pines in a five-set barnburner 12 days later.
"I guess we've got to play at home more often," Wawrzynowicz quipped following the Northland Pines match. "Home has been good for us this year which is a switch. We had been playing better on the road the last couple of years."
Fading at the finish
The Hodags struggled down the stretch, however, winning only two of their final 10 matches.
The team dropped a tough five-setter at Northland Pines Oct. 7 as part of the GNC tournament was tied a set apiece with Medford before relinquishing a late third-set lead on its way to a 3-1 loss.
After going 1-3-1 in an invite at Wausau West, the Hodags were soundly swept by Northland Pines 25-12, 25-19, 25-18 in the first round of the WIAA tournament.
"We just got beat by a better team - more athletic, more aggressive, served well," Wawrzynowicz said. "We did not pass well and that's what happened."
What's next
Make no mistake, the 2018 RHS volleyball team will look vastly different than the 2017 vintage.
Not only will the Hodags bid farewell to Wissbroecker, the team is set to graduate 10 seniors who saw time on the varsity court this fall, including all-conference libero Stephanie Kuester, who led the GNC with 285 digs.
Seniors-to-be Brooke Mork and Mikayla Evenstad, along with sophomore-to-be Hannah Worachek, will be the only varsity letterwinners due back, leaving a lot of unknowns for the future.
Wawrzynowicz implored the team to work on improving in the offseason.
"To the underclassmen, I think the biggest thing is if they want to be successful, they have to work at it," she told the River News at season's end. "You can't sit from now until next year when practice starts and do absolutely nothing. The teams that were ahead of us are the one that played club all year round, are the ones that came to open gym all the time. They played league. They went to camps. We just didn't have that this year. There was not a strong commitment to that from everybody. Hopefully they take that into account and some work really hard at it."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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