August 20, 2018 at 1:23 p.m.
Team preview: RHS volleyball
Hodag volleyball begins year of transition
Team preview: RHS volleyball
Longtime head coach Kathy Wawrzynowicz retired and one of her former players, Brianna Scheuermann, has taken over the program. Great Northern Conference player of the year Hope Wissbroecker graduated and is off to play volleyball at UW-Whitewater. Rhinelander also graduated a former all-conference setter in Ally Seefeldt, an all-conference libero in Stephanie Kuester and nine seniors total from last year's varsity roster.
Welcome to a brave new world for Hodag volleyball.
"This is definitely a new experience for me, and some of them too," Scheuermann said. "We're all going to be learning and making changes as we go.
"A lot of them, it's their first time seeing varsity action. It will be interesting to see how the season goes but, hopefully, this will be a well-knit group that can work together and find each other's strengths and weaknesses."
The Hodags bring back three players from last year's varsity squad, in seniors Brooke Mork and Mikayla Evenstad and sophomore Hannah Worachek.
Scheuermann said she expects Mork and Worachek to be outside hitters who have the ability to stay on the court fulltime and play in the back row, when necessary. Evenstad figures to be a back row specialist.
Mork's 23 kills in Great Northern Conference play were the fifth most on the team a season ago. Worachek recorded only four kills in conference play, but was an effective server, putting the ball in play at a 91.2 percent clip with five aces. Evenstad had the most digs last year of any returning player with 27.
The player or players responsible for putting the ball away will have large shoes to fill in the wake of Wissbroecker's graduation. She led the Great Northern Conference last year with a .371 attacking percentage and 5.4 kills per set.
Additionally, Rhinelander is in need of a new setter. Seefeldt handled the bulk of the duty as a junior and split time with Makayla Kuester last year when Seefeldt's services were needed in the front row. Both players are gone and Scheuermann said players jockeying to fill the void include junior Aryssa Zasada, sophomore Olivia TerBeest and sophomore Noelle Davis.
Scheuermann said it remains to be seen if the team with run a 5-1 system with one setter, or a 6-2 with two setters.
"It's just getting comfortable with the varsity position as a setter and knowing where to send the ball in certain situations," she said.
The majority of the players filling the varsity roster this year will be underclassmen, many of whom Scheuermann coached at the junior varsity level last fall. Scheuermann said that fact has made the transition to varsity easier for both her and her players.
"I know how they play, know their strengths and weaknesses and know how to talk to them and relate to them," she said. "That makes it a little easier that I don't have to start fresh with a whole new team. I at least have some familiar faces to work with."
Like last year, Scheuermann said the Hodags aren't blessed with much height, which could pose a concern at the net. Rhinelander was fifth in the GNC in team blocking a year ago - with Wissbroecker accounting for more than half of the teams blocks.
"I think blocking is going to be pretty tough on us but, hopefully, we'll combat that with passing," Scheuermann said. "I think we have a few strong hitters but, hopefully, as the season goes we'll accumulate more."
Scheuermann said her goal is to eventually put Rhinelander back on the map where it is vying for conference titles, as it did in 2012 when the Hodags knocked off Tomahawk during the height of their dynasty. It may not happen overnight, but "hopefully we can get to a point where we walk into the gym and people know that, 'Hey, that's Rhinelander Hodags' volleyball,'" she said.
"We're going to work hard and try to work on more fundamentals of passing, setting and just the basics so we can get to more slides, back row hitting that other teams do that we couldn't before," she said.
That process began Saturday with a four-team scrimmage at Merrill and continues today as the Hodags open the 2018 season by hosting an invite that includes Ashland, Chequamegon and Three Lakes.
"Hopefully, we'll find a group that works well together," Scheuremann said when asked to name her top objective for today's invite.
Scheuermann said the strong teams over the last few years - Mosinee, Medford and Antigo - will likely continue to serve as the conference favorites this year. The Hodags open the GNC schedule at Tomahawk Aug. 30.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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