September 22, 2022 at 8:26 a.m.
Pines sweeps Hodag volleyball
Pines sweeps Hodag volleyball
The Hodags fell in straight sets 25-20, 25-14, 25-21 at Northland Pines in a battle of 0-5 teams in league play. Rhinelander held early leads in each of the three sets but was unable to snap a conference losing streak that extended to 51 straight matches.
"Just too many spots where we gave up a four, five-point run to them and we just couldn't climb back in it," Hodag head coach Dan Wolter said.
In particular, Rhinelander's front row had difficultly slowing down Northland Pines' attack. Senior Paris Croker had 16 kills on the night for the Eagles, according to numbers kept by the River News. Meanwhile, Rhinelander recorded no blocks on the night and got very few touches to affect the Eagles' swings.
"We didn't get a lot of hands up and couldn't get touches on her," Wolter said. "She's hitting deep corners and dropping the ball pretty sharp in that 10-foot-area. She's a big swing and we knew what we had to do against her tonight. I think we did a good job in sets 1 and 3 at least limiting the damage with her. Set 2 was just too many free balls that got them in system so they could just let her kind of run in the front, and she took advantage of it."
Croker helped put away the opening set for the Eagles. Rhinelander got to within 21-20 on a passing error by the Eagles, but Emma Chiamulera hit the next serve out of bounds. After a kill by Madi Meisenburg made it 23-20, Croker had a block kill at the net, followed by a spike kill as the Eagles took the opening set.
Croker had three kills during a 7-2 stretch that helped the Eagles break open a 7-all tie in the second set. Pines did not trail after that as Rhinelander failed to string together consecutive points for the remainder of the set.
The Hodags were within a point, down 16-15 in the third, before a string of three straight errors gave the Eagles some breathing room. Croker loomed large again late in the set as the had a block, a spike and a tip kill that got Pines to match point, up 24-19. Rhinelander fended off two Eagle chances to clinch the match, but Cami Cox hit the line on an attack on the third match point as Pines claimed the victory.
Rhinelander had moments early in each of the three sets. The Hodags were up 6-1 in the first, 5-3 in the second and 7-5 in the third. All three sets were tied at 7, but the Eagles never trailed after those points.
The Hodags have been swept in 26 consecutive GNC matches, dating back to the start of the 2020 season.
Ava Lamers led the Hodags with six kills on the night, but the rest of the squad had only five kills combined as Rhinelander hit just .016 on the night (11 kills, 10 errors, 64 attempts).
The team recorded 41 digs on the night. Chiamulera had 10 digs, Lamers had nine and Lexi Robinson chipped in eight.
"We climbed back in a few times and got into some long volleys were we were just kind of not being aggressive enough on the offense, but keeping the ball in play," Wolter said. "We relied on our defense a bit tonight and, at times, our defense held up. We just weren't able to get a kill on the back side of it."
Lamers added three service aces for Rhinelander and Maddi Roeser had a team-high five assists.
Rhinelander (6-13, 0-6 Great Northern) travels to Phillips on Saturday to take part in an eight-team invite.
"We've got a good opportunity to go play some teams that we haven't really seen yet this year in Phillips and Prentice. Florence is there," Wolter said. "It will be a good opportunity to see some new teams and, hopefully, continue building off what we were able to do tonight and fix some mistakes we did make tonight."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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