September 28, 2020 at 8:21 a.m.
RHS volleyball struggles at Lakeland
RHS volleyball struggles at Lakeland
"This felt like it was one step forward, two steps back," he said. "I really feel like this was our poorest performance of the year and I just don't know why that would be."
Rhinelander could not get much going in a 25-12, 25-18, 25-9 defeat. Much of the difficulty, Povolo said, could be traced back to the team's first or second touches in every rally.
"We couldn't pass a ball in serve-receive. We were struggling to pass free balls well," he said. "If you are trying to work to improve balls all night long, the odds of getting good swing attempts is going to be not very high. It kind of all started with our passing and it kind of dominoed from that point."
Rhinelander was looking to build on some momentum found late in a home loss last Tuesday night to Medford in which it rallied from down 16-7 at one point to get to within 22-21 before falling 25-21. The Hodags started Thursday's match with the same formation worked well against the Raiders. Rhinelander started the opening set with a 3-1 lead, but Lakeland inched back to tie the set at 6-6 and went on a 16-4 run from their to take control.
"Our first set we ran the same lineup we finished with (against) Medford that we were really competitive with, running a 5-1. We had moved Ava Lamers to the outside, out of the middle and what was working on Tuesday just was not working (tonight)," Povolo said. "We got ourselves into a hole right away and we kind of tumbled in that first one."
Rhinelander took the first point of the second set, but Lakeland took the next six to build a lead it wouldn't relinquish. The Hodags got to within four points twice later in the set at 14-10 and 19-15, but was unable to get any closer.
"The second set, we went back to a 6-2, something we've been far more familiar with and put some of the experienced players back into their regular positions and we were more competitive in that second one, for sure," Povolo noted.
Not much went Rhinelander's way in the third set as Lakeland jumped out to a 19-4 lead and never looked back.
"By that point, I think the morale was kind of going down because we were just kind of struggling in all phases," Povolo said. "Once that snowball starts rolling downhill, it's really tough to stop."
Adding to the issues, Povolo said, was that primary setter Olivia TerBeest left the match in the third set with an apparent hand issue, which left the Hodags young and inexperienced at the position.
"We're struggling to find consistency out of our setters, just to be honest," he said. "We're got Livi, who's fairly solid but, behind her, we have one girl (Addi DeMeyer) who's been setting for all of four weeks now. She shows signs of greatness and then she shows signs of 'I've been a setter for four weeks.' It's that consistency that I think we really need. Your setters need to improve the ball, no matter what, and I think we're going to start making that move forward again."
Lamers led Rhinelander with three kills on the evening while Allie Dornfeld chipped in a pair of kills. Hannah Worachek had four digs and three service aces while TerBeest chipped in four assists.
The loss dropped Rhinelander to 0-4 in GNC play and all but assured that the Hodags will be in the bottom tier for the conference's second round which begins Oct. 8. Rhinelander has now lost 29 straight matches in GNC play. The Hodags venture outside the GNC for the only time this season tonight as they travel to Ashland. On Thursday, Rhinelander travels to Tomahawk which, like the Hodags, sits at 0-4 in GNC play.
"It's opportunities and we just have to keep our nose to the grindstone," Povolo said. "We've been talking about getting better each time and this was the one match where I felt like we did not get a little bit better. We're going to have to try to right the ship on that one."
Information from Lakeland Times sportswriter Brett LaBore was used in this report.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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