September 5, 2018 at 2:26 p.m.
Slide continues for Hodag volleyball
Slide continues for Hodag volleyball
An inexperienced Rhinelander High School volleyball team continues to take its lumps as it learns on the job.
The Hodags' losing streak extended to 15 matches Tuesday with a three-set loss to Wausau East at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium, which came after an 0-5 performance three days prior at the Marshfield Invite.
A first-year coach with a slew of first-year starters, Brianna Scheuermann said improvement is coming in short spurts for her team, but has yet to be sustained long enough to translate into marks in the win column.
"We'd just get a run and then we'd kind of lose it, we couldn't get a pass up," she said after Tuesday's loss to East. "Then we'd get back up and we just couldn't put it all the way through. We've definitely got to work on that."
Rhinelander dropped Tuesday's match 25-7, 25-15, 25-10 to the Lumberjacks. Scheuermann said the team struggled to figure out Wausau East's attack early in the match.
"Wausau East has a couple good hitters and at first, I think (we) didn't know what to expect," she said. "So they put down some pretty good kills in the first round. We tried to adjust, but with no touches on blocking it was hard."
The Hodags had a couple of 6-0 runs late in the second set and early in the third. Trailing 24-9 in the second, the Rhinelander staved off a number of set points on Hannah Worachek's serve before falling 25-15. Rhinelander trailed the third set 12-3 at one point, but rallied back to make it 12-9 before East reestablished momentum.
"Hannah - I don't know how many serves, it had to be five or something - where she just kept giving it to them and they just couldn't put it up. That was a good confidence booster going into the third set," Scheuermann said. "As we continued to play, we got some touches, were able to move around a little bit, keep up and kind of play with them."
Kahlie Arneson and Julie Brievogel each had two kills to lead Rhinelander on Tuesday. Mikayla Evenstad had seven digs, Aryssa Zasada had four assists and Worachek chipped in three service aces.
Marshfield Invite
With a mix and match of personnel, the Hodags went 0-5 Saturday at the Marshfield Invite, losing all but one match in straight sets.
Rhinelander was swept by Superior (25-8, 25-11), Prescott (25-5, 25-14), Marshfield (25-13, 25-13) and Ashwaubenon (25-6, 25-14) before forcing a three-set match with Abbotsford.
After losing the first set 25-7 against Abbotsford, the Hodags bounced back to take the second 25-19 but dropped the decisive third set 15-8.
"We played some pretty tough teams and we had quite a bit of girls gone due to family things, so I had to pull a few people up from JV. It was like the first time with another new squad. They actually played pretty well together. It was good to see that," Scheuermann said. "I think once they continued to work (with) each other and figure out who worked well where, they just kind of played with that and they were actually able to take a (set) against Abbotsford."
Worachek and Arneson each had 10 kills on the day to lead Rhinelander. Worachek added 37 digs while Arneson was 25 of 27 serving with four aces. Evenstad had 36 digs for the Hodags and was 20 of 23 serving. Emily Jorgensen stepped into the setter's role with both Zasada and Olivia TerBeest absent Saturday and led the team with 10 set assists.
Rhinelander (1-16, 0-1 Great Northern) hosts Medford in tonight at the Miazga Gym in GNC play.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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