September 19, 2022 at 11:07 a.m.
Hodag volleyball swept by Tomahawk, Medford at GNCs
Hodag volleyball swept by Tomahawk, Medford at GNCs
After falling to defending GNC champion Mosinee earlier in the week, Rhinelander lost to Mosinee's two top challengers for the conference title this year - Medford and Tomahawk - on Saturday.
"It was a lot of the same of what we had Tuesday," Hodag coach Dan Wolter said. "We didn't start off set one on a high note and didn't serve-receive all that great. But I think, looking back at the end of the day, we had two tough matches and we just didn't play up to the level of volleyball I think our team can play up to."
Rhinelander started the day with a 25-12, 25-10, 25-8 loss to Medford. The Hodags, who have consistently finished with a positive attacking percentage this season, had one of their worst offensive matches of the season. They finished with a minus-.133 attacking percentage against Medford with only eight kills compared to 18 attacking errors.
"We had few mishandles on serve-receive and a few double (hits) setting. It kind of put us behind and it's hard to climb back against good teams," Wolter said. "Our defense is picking up balls and picking up tips, but just not enough consistency with our offense and getting swings back at them."
Rhinelander played better against Tomahawk, falling 25-12, 25-12, 25-15. The Hodags were plus-.103 on the attack in that match against a Hatchet squad that moved into a first-place tie with Mosinee in the league standings at 5-0.
"The Tomahawk match we knew what we were going into. They have Megan Scholz in the middle, who's the big swing in the conference and then (Alyssa) Zehner on the outside," Wolter said. "I thought we did a great job of playing great defense, getting digs and keeping the ball up on that side of things. We just weren't able to run enough offense back at them. We were kind of always on our heels and just too many free balls and not getting enough swings back at them."
Ava Lamers led Rhinelander with seven kills on the day. She also added 12 digs and a pair of blocks. Allie Dornfeld had four kills while Macey Schmoeger, Kelsi Beran, Lucy Lindner and Lily Treder had three kills each.
Maddi Roeser chipped in seven assists and seven digs, Emma Chiamulera recorded a team-high 19 digs while Lindner added 11 digs and a pair of service aces.
Rhinelander will return to Eagle River tonight to face Northland Pines in GNC play. The Eagles, like Rhinelander, fell to 0-5 in the conference following Saturday's tournament.
"Coach (Julie) Smith does a really nice job with her teams and always stresses ball control. That's one thing we're going to have to make sure we do is find ways to get them out of system," Wolter said. "They're a good team and that's going to be a challenge to do. Hopefully we can turn things around and get some things figured out offensively, how we can get in system more consistently."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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