October 10, 2022 at 8:31 a.m.
Volleyball: Hodags take a set from Northland Pines at GNC tourney
Volleyball: Hodags take a set from Northland Pines at GNC tourney
For the first time since 2019 the Hodags won a set in conference play, taking the first set from Northland Pines during the second round of the GNC tournament at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
Rhinelander eventually lost that match in four sets and also fell to Lakeland and Mosinee in straight sets on Saturday.
"I'm pleased with how we played," Hodag coach Dan Wolter said. "We stayed in it all the way until the end on most sets. We just had to chip back in to start games. Against Pines, we cut that down to two or three points to start games and we were able to hang in from the start. Against Lakeland and Mosinee, we kind of got off to a slower start and just weren't able to climb back into it."
Rhinelander rallied from down 24-19 to take the opening set from the Eagles 26-24 in the team's second match of the day. That snapped a string of 29 conference sweeps that dated back to the start of the 2020 season. Rhinelander last won a set in the final conference match of 2019, losing to Tomahawk in four sets.
Ava Lamers had a team-high 24 kills on the day, including one that started the Hodags' fateful rally in the first set against the Eagles. After a couple of Pines
errors, Lexi Robinson had a kill to make it 23-24. Lamers had a block kill at the net to tie the set. Maddi Roeser followed with an ace and Robinson put one away following a long volley to give the Hodags the win.
"Maddi Roeser went on a game-ending run there, served it out for us. It was great," Wolter said. "The girls stepped up and didn't give up on that set. The defense came up huge for us. We had two or three blocks down the stretch, maybe an ace serve and just some good digs that got us into system to take that first one."
The Hodags were on the brink of taking a 2-0 lead in the match, up 23-22 in the second set, but Pines answered with back-to-back kills, followed by a ball-handling error by the Hodags that gave the Eagles the second set 25-23.
Pines used a key 5-1 run midway through the third set to go up 20-14 and eventually took that set 25-21. Rhinelander led 13-12 in the fourth before Madi Meisenburg had a tip kill and then served three consecutive aces for the Eagles. That sparked a decisive 11-0 run as the Eagles won the fourth 25-15 and claimed the match.
"We weren't really able to climb back out of it," Wolter said. "That was our seventh set of the day and I think the legs got a little loose and we kind of lost it there and weren't able to build back and get the momentum back on our side."
Rhinelander started the day with a 25-15, 25-17, 25-23 loss to Lakeland. The Hodags got off to slow starts in each of the first two sets, trailing 14-4 in the first and 17-4 in the second. After spotting Lakeland a 5-1 lead in the third, Rhinelander rallied and led 23-19, but Lakeland rattled off the last six points to claim the match.
"Too many slow starts. Set 1 and set 2 we just got off to slow starts," Wolter said. "We fought back into them but, again, when you get off to that slow start, big leads are hard to climb back against, especially against teams that have big swings on the other side. The third set the serve-receive came alive. We started putting balls to the ground. We swung reasonably well that third set and, again, the block and defense came up for us. We had some big blocks in that game as well."
Another slow start plagued Rhinelander in the first set against Mosinee. The Hodags fell behind 12-2 at the start before losing 25-9. Rhinelander never trailed by more than five in the second set as it lost 25-21. After falling behind 6-0 in the third, the Hodags took the lead on a couple of occasions before Mosinee took control late and went on to a 25-19 win.
Kelsi Beran added 13 kills on the day for Rhinelander while Robinson had seven kills. After back-to-back matches with more errors than kills, the Hodags were well in the positive in all three matches on Saturday, hitting at a .104 clip overall on the day.
"The attack was good today. Lexi Robinson swung great. Ava Lamers had a lot of good kills out of the middle and Kelsi Beran too on the outside," Wolter said. "We were on the plus side of things for our swing, which is good. We've been hitting negative, (to turn) that (around) means we're getting ball in system and getting good swings off sets."
Lamers added 21 digs and 13 total blocks for the Hodags. Roeser had 22 assists, five service aces and 21 digs, Emma Chiamulera had 37 digs and Allie Dornfeld chipped in eight total blocks.
Rhinelander (9-21, 0-11 Great Northern) will finish GNC play tonight at home against Antigo.
"The girls are excited as well and we want to get that last win on senior night," Wolter said. "Hopefully those girls can enjoy that and can come together and continue playing like we did today."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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