August 25, 2022 at 7:06 a.m.
Hodag spikers win home quadrangular
Team wins three straight for first time since 2017
Hodag spikers win home quadrangular
Rhinelander took all three matches in a home triangular at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium. The Hodags swept Elcho, rallied to win a tight three-set match against Hurley and closed out the day with a sweep of Chequamegon. That was an improvement over last year, when the Hodags went 1-2 against the same three teams in the invitational, and the three straight wins marked the first time Rhinelander has done that since winning three GNC matches in a row between Sept. 19 and Oct. 3, 2017.
"It's a great start and the girls played hard," Hodag coach Dan Wolter said. "Coming in and going 3-0 in your own quad, that's always refreshing and a great way to build some confidence inside the girls going down to the Dells for this weekend."
The Hodags did it with some strong play down the stretch in a number of sets. On four occasions the Hodags were tied with five points or fewer remaining until game point. The Hodags won all four sets.
That included the rally of the day against Hurley. Trailing 12-7 in the decisive third set, Rhinelander rattled off eight straight points to stun the Northstars.
Senior Ava Lamers, who led the Hodags with 15 kills and eight blocks on the day, started that rally with a kill and served out the next seven points from the service line. Rhinelander got a block kill at the net from sophomore Kelsi Beran to tie the set at 12. After a Hurley error, Beran had another kill to give the Hodags' match point and sophomore Macey Schmoeger finished it off with a tip kill at the net.
"We had a great service run there and got four, five right there on the serve and climbed ourselves right back in," Wolter said. "We kind of did that all day. We found ourselves down in three or four sets and were able to kind to fight and claw our way back and never give up, which is a great sign to see from a really quite young team out there."
Rhinelander was down 17-10 at one point in the first set against Hurley, but got back into it, tying the set at 19 on a 9-2 run that included seven Hurley errors. Junior Lexi Robinson gave the Hodags the lead with one of her five service aces on the day.
The set featured four more lead changes from there. Rhinelander staved off set point on a net violation on Hurley. A double-hit violation by the Northstars gave Rhinelander set point and Schmoeger finished it off with a free ball that found the floor to give the Hodags a 26-24 win.
Hurley controlled the second set, using a 9-1 run to break an 9-9 tie and eventually cruised to a 25-18 win to force a third set.
The Hodags had a back-and-forth opening set against Elcho, and were trailing 22-19, when they called their final timeout of the set. Elcho made errors on four of the next five points, allowing the Hodags to tie it at 23 all. Rhinelander then closed out the set on a block kill by Beran and a service ace by junior libero Emma Chiamulera. Rhinelander never trailed in the second set, using an 11-4 run to pull away before taking a 25-15 win to complete the sweep.
"We came out a little slow against Elcho," Wolter said. "It didn't help that we missed our first three serves, but again we got into a little serve-receive lull. I think it was a little bit of the jitters, some nerves came that first set. Halfway through the game they started getting into the flow of things and were kind of mentally able to get where they needed to be to make a comeback."
Rhinelander broke a 20-all tie in the first set against Chequamegon, scoring the final five points to take the win. The late run included a kill by Beran and a pair of aces from senior setter Maddi Roeser. The Hodags took the lead for good in the second set at 7-6 on a tip kill by Lamers and pulled away to a 25-15 win.
Wolter credited his defense's ability to stay in points, especially in the close sets.
"We had a lot of digs and that's exactly what it was, keeping the ball up, fighting through, just playing good defense and waiting for them to hit it in the net, or get a net violation," he said. "We played some scrappy volleyball today."
Chiamulera finished with 31 digs as she takes over the libero role from the graduated Reagan Hartman. Roeser added 21 digs, Lamers had 19 digs and Beran chipped in 14 digs.
Beran added 11 kills and seven blocks on the day while Robinson chipped in nine kills. Roeser finished the day with a team-high 21 assists. Morgan Boutelle had eight assists and Ava Krouse had six.
"I thought our setting was really good down the stretch," Wolter said. "It was a little ugly in our first game against Elcho, but the setters did a good job of cleaning it up and putting up hittable balls for the girls down the stretch. When it's a good ball to swing at, they were taking cuts and I like that."
Rhinelander (3-0, 0-0 Great Northern) is in Wisconsin Dells today, concluding the two-day Friendship Tournament that began with pool play yesterday. That will be Rhinelander's final non-conference tune-up before beginning GNC play next Thursday at Antigo.
"I'm expecting competitive ball. Every time we go down there, we play against some pretty tough teams, and that's why we go down there," Wolter said. "That's kind of our starting point to see where everybody else is at and kind of get us ready for our conference. We play in a tough conference and it's good to play against a little harder competition. Hopefully we can pull out a few games down there and just play tough. That's my goal, go down there and play tough, keep fighting through and be competitive against everybody down there."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
WEATHER SPONSORED BY
E-Editions
Latest News
E-Editions
Events
August
To Submit an Event Sign in first
Today's Events
No calendar events have been scheduled for today.
Comments:
You must login to comment.