September 9, 2021 at 7:42 a.m.
Mosinee aces Rhinelander in GNC volleyball
Mosinee aces Rhinelander in GNC volleyball
Rhinelander suffered its 36th straight conference loss, falling to four-time defending Great Northern Conference champion Mosinee in three sets. Mosinee improved its conference winning streak to 45 matches dating back to the 2017 season.
The Hodags appeared overmatched at times as they fell 25-10, 25-9, 25-17 inside a near-capacity Mosinee High School gym.
"It's always a tough place here, big crowd, great fan base they have here. They were loud all night," Hodag coach Dan Wolter said. "It's a good team too on top of it. They're tough. They've got really big swings in the middles and the outsides. You've got to play really good ball to even compete with them."
Though Mosinee made good on 29 of its 69 attacks on the night, the Indians mainly put Rhinelander away at the service line, recording 20 aces on the evening. Seventeen of those aces were the result of serve-receive errors by the Hodags - a weakness that Mosinee was quick to exploit.
"They were pushing us deep, bringing us short. We've got to move our feet better. That's what it really came down to at the end of the night," Wolter said. "It's a killer. If you can't control that first ball, it's tough to hang in sets. When you're giving freeballs back to them, or even giving them free points on serve receive, it's going to be tough to hang with them."
Abbi Martin recorded a match-high 10 kills for Mosinee. Five of those came during a 10-0 run in the first set as Mosinee stretched the lead to 17-5 and cruised the rest of the way.
Mosinee reeled off 16 of 18 points to jump out to a 22-6 lead in the second set. Rhinelander was within 19-14 in the third set before Mosinee pulled away to close out the match.
"We were a little bit better the third game, put up a few more points, battled with them a little longer in that third set," Wolter said. "That third set we got a lot more swings and that's what we're looking for, to be more in system and get our attack numbers up. If we can be on the offense and make them chase, we've got a better chance."
Junior Ava Lamers was the only Hodag to record multiple kills, finishing with five on the night. She also had five digs and was 8 of 8 serving with a pair of aces. Addi DeMeyer had a team-high five assists and Reagan Hartman had a team-best nine digs.
Tuesday's match took just 58 minutes to complete.
Rhinelander (3-9, 0-2 Great Northern) returns to action this coming Tuesday at home against Northland Pines. The Eagles fell to Medford in a tight five-set match on Tuesday.
"That's going to be another tough one," Wolter said. "I know they've got a good squad up there. Hopefully we can put something together this week and early next week."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.