August 26, 2019 at 12:14 p.m.
Team preview: RHS volleyball
Hodag spikers ready to reach new heights
Team preview: RHS volleyball
The Hodags won only one match a season ago - and that came on the first day of competition - and set victories were hard to come by.
With a full offseason under second-year head coach Brianna Scheuermann, and most of last year's squad returning, there's only one way for the team to go this season.
"The goal this year, we're really just trying to do better than last year," Scheuermann said.
The biggest difference for the Hodags this year compared to last year is height. Rhinelander played some of its best volleyball toward the end of last season when it added a pair of six-foot freshmen, Ariel Pauer and Brynn Brzycki. Both are back and will add some much needed height to the Hodag front line, which was last in the GNC with only 0.65 blocks per set.
"We definitely have a lot more height," Scheuermann said. "We had Brynn and Ariel come in at the end of last year and they were able to get us a lot more touches. I think, this year, we're going to be able to do a lot more touches on blocking, actually be able to get some blocks so that other teams won't have as many kills on us."
Pauer and Brzycki should also help an offense that had a negative attacking percentage - meaning they had more attacking errors than kills - in the conference a year ago. Another addition that should help the squad is senior Cynthia Beavers, who was second team All-Northern Lakes for Three Lakes a season ago before transferring to Rhinelander ahead of the girls' basketball season.
Those three join retuning players Kahlie Arneson and Emily Jorgensen along the front lines for the Hodags. Sophomore Maddie Fisher can provide another tall body up front for the team.
Hannah Worachek was also an outside hitter for the Hodags a season ago. The 5-3 junior is will be taking on a new role this year as she moves to libero, a spot that belonged to Mikayla Evenstad before she sustained a knee injury in the second half of the year.
"I think she's a great replacement," Scheuermann said of Worachek's transition to libero. "She's definitely a leader. She communicates very clearly on the floor and she's not afraid to get down and dirty. I know, wherever the ball is placed, she's at least going to get a touch on it and we'll have a chance to put it down.
"Hannah's the type of player that can go all around, but with our team this year we have a lot of people that can play outside, can play in the middle, but we don't have a lot of strong back row players. I think she's really going to thrive being in the back row."
Aryssa Zasada led the team with 55 assists in GNC play last year. She's back as a setter. Scheuermann said it is possible that both she and junior Olivia TerBeest will be on the court at the same time, as the Hodags contemplate running a 6-2 system with a pair of setters.
"Both of them have really worked," Scheuermann said. "We've had them working on setting for about probably a good three hours in the past three days. They've really been working on placing the ball for our hitters to get them in better position, as well as back sets and quick middles. We're going to have different kinds of sets this year to hopefully throw the other teams off this year."
Novalee Juel, Brylee Ridderbusch and Julie Breivogel round out the returning players from last year's squad.
The Hodags did not have much of an offseason last year, with Scheuermann hired less than a month before the start of practice to replace the retired Kathy Wawrzynowicz. That meant, aside from a couple of open gyms, the team did not have much of an offseason program. That changed this offseason, and Scheuermann said she's already noticed a difference.
"Just from the first few days of practice, it's totally a different atmosphere, different personality, different work ethic from this group than we've had in previous years," she said. "It's really exciting to get with these girls, coach them and get ready for these games."
The Hodags hope it adds up to greater success. Last year, Rhinelander had no all-conference honorees and only one player in the top 10 of the conference in any statistic - that was Arneson who was ninth in the GNC with 20 blocks.
"I think if we have more girls who are on the GNC stats, we'll have more chances of winning sets and matches than we did last year," Scheuermann said.
The Hodags started to find out about their squad Saturday during a scrimmage in Merrill. The team kicks off the season hosting Ashland, Chequamegon and Three Lakes in a quadrangular meet this afternoon at the Miazga Gym before heading to Wisconsin Dells this Thursday and Friday for an invitational.
Scheuermann said the team will use the early matches - especially the Dells tournament - to work out some of the bugs and determine the best rotation ahead of the GNC opener Sept. 5 against Tomahawk at the Miazga Gym.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.