October 20, 2022 at 7:42 a.m.
Hodag volleyball season ends at Waupaca
Hodag volleyball season ends at Waupaca
Rhinelander, the 13th seed in a 14-team half sectional, lost the match 25-12, 25-12, 25-15.
"We knew going in it was going to be a tough matchup. Just watching film, we knew they had three or four big swings over there that we had to defend," Hodag coach Dan Wolter said. "They ran a pretty quick-tempo offense and I thought, as all three games went on, we did a better job of kind of matching that same tempo with our block."
"At times we looked really good and I'm very proud of the way the girls went out and fought tonight and how they played."
Wolter said Waupaca's quick offense and strong serving kept the Comets one step ahead in every set.
"It was a quick start each set. I think they ran five or six points right off the bat off us, just off serve," he said. "They played good, solid defense on us. Even when we were in system we were trying to swing around a big block and trying to find holes on the tips and they did a good job defensively and kind of fired right back at us when we weren't able to get the ball to the ground.
"Serve-receive again is what it really came down to. They served the ball very tough - good, hard float serves. They mixed it up short and deep and we just weren't able to get into system quite enough to hang with them."
Rhinelander finished the night plus-.086 on the attack with 19 kills and 13 errors in 70 total chances. Senior Ava Lamers took the bulk of the swings on the night. She had 11 kills and five errors in 31 attacks.
"Ava Lamers led us on the night with 11 kills and swung very well, was good with her shots and was able to get the ball to the floor on them," Wolter said.
Lamers was one of four seniors who played their final match for Rhinelander. Setters Morgan Boutelle and Maddi Roeser had nine and seven assists, respectively. Allie Dornfeld added a pair of kills in the front row.
"Morgan and Maddi setting for us did a fantastic job as well, getting balls up in the air," Wolter said. "They didn't have a ton of assists, but they put hittable balls up for everybody tonight. Allie Dornfeld threw a few kills in there as well, played great defensively. She's one of those getting a lot of touches on the block."
Wolter thanked the four, plus senior Addi DeMeyer who served as a manager this year after being sidelined due to ankle surgery, for their contributions to the program.
"It was great to have all those girls out there, fight, and really pull the girls together," he said. "Hopefully some of these younger girls learned some things from them. They've been fighting since June, since open gyms, to get a winning season for us and to compete."
Boutelle added the only two service aces the Hodags had on the night while Lamers recorded the team's lone block kill. Emma Chiamulera had a team-high 13 digs, Lamers had 12 digs and Roeser added five digs.
"I thought we did a good job again, defensively, tonight," Wolter said. "We picked up quite a few digs in the back with Emma getting to balls off touches off the block. Ava Lamers also had a big night digging, doing the same thing. We were getting touches on the swings and we did a great job that way, defensively with our block and slowing the ball down when we had opportunities to do so."
Rhinelander ended the season with a 9-27 record. The Hodags went winless in the GNC for a fifth straight season but scored five more wins in 2022 than they did in 2021 and won two sets in GNC play, their first set wins in conference since 2019.
"We would have loved to see the conference wins, but it's progress," he said. "Non-conference wins still count for something and we just kind of re-stack that goal for next year. All of these girls were able to be a part of that this year and that younger class now understands what it's going to take to get those conference wins and how tough a conference we actually play in."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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