October 8, 2018 at 12:44 p.m.
Hodag volleyball eyes future at GNC meet
Hodag volleyball eyes future at GNC meet
Several junior varsity players were called up to varsity as the Hodags lost matches against the top three teams in the Great Northern Conference during Saturday's second leg of the conference tournament at Tomahawk High School.
Antigo, Mosinee and Medford all swept the Hodags in straight sets, running Rhinelander's losing streak to 30 matches.
Tests confirmed the worst earlier this week, senior libero Mikayla Evenstad suffered a season-ending knee injury last week prior to the Lakeland match. With Evenstad out and only one other senior on the varsity roster, coach Brianna Scheuermann mixed up the lineup, inserting four players who started the year on JV.
"We kind of messed around with the lineup, looking at some stuff for next year," Scheuermann said. "It seemed, especially against Medford, with the girls we could have next year as a team, they did pretty good."
As she did Tuesday night, freshman Carly Schmidt took Evenstad's spot at libero Saturday and finished the day with a team-high 26 digs.
"We've just been trying to get her comfortable," Scheuermann said. "I know she hasn't played a lot in that position all season, especially at a higher level. I just told her today that she should be looking at it as an opportunity to practice for next year. With (Evenstad) being a senior, she's probably going to be it. I told her that and she took it more to heart and were getting more into it."
The team also brought up Emily Jorgensen, Ariel Pauer and Brynn Brzycki. Pauer and Brzycki, a pair of freshmen, brought some added height to Rhinelander's front row. Pauer recorded three kills while Brzycki added two kills and a block.
"I like the height that they brought and they definitely challenged a lot more hitters on the other team and got more touches," Scheuermann said. "That was definitely a plus so the girls in the back row didn't have to get hammered as much today."
Rhinelander started out slowly in each of its three matches, but was more competitive as the day went along.
The Hodags opened with a 25-6, 25-3, 25-17 loss to Antigo, fell 25-4, 25-11, 25-16 to Mosinee and finished with a 25-10, 25-9, 25-16 loss to Medford.
"I know definitely this morning, the girls seemed like they were not warmed up, kind of still in the sleepy zone," Scheuermann said. "As the match went on they kind of got comfortable playing."
Brooke Mork led Rhinelander with 10 kills on the day, Aryssa Zasada had 20 assists and Hannah Worachek was 27 of 32 serving with four aces.
Rhinelander will host its final home match of the season tonight against Tomahawk, will close out the regular season with an invite at Wausau West on Saturday and will begin the WIAA playoffs next Thursday.
"Tomahawk is going to be another competitive game, plus it's our Pink Out (game for breast cancer awareness) and senior night, so it's definitely going to be a huge game," Scheuermann said. "Saturday is going to be another hard day with a lot of teams that are really good. We'll just keep on going."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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