Hodag volleyball honors seniors at year-end banquet

For the second straight year, the Rhinelander High School volleyball team opted to bypass individual awards during its season-ending banquet held last Wednesday in the RHS commons.

Just like last year, that gave coach Dan Wolter a little extra time to acknowledge his senior class, which has seen the Hodag volleyball program get incrementally better over the course of their four-year careers. 

After a winless 2020, Rhinelander won four matches in 2021, nine matches last year and 13 this season. 

“I really want to thank you,” Wolter said, before presenting the seniors with custom drinking glasses with reusable straws. “You were fun to work with, you put your best effort forward. You made us more competitive and helped build this program. Thank you guys for everything and being part of this.”

Seniors on this year’s varsity team included Emma Chiamulera, Maddie Ewan, Ava Krouze, Mya Krouze, Lexi Robinson, Alyssa Smits and Lily Treder. 

The gradual improvement on the team was the theme in Wolter’s remarks. Rhinelander’s 13 wins marked the most for the team since 2017 and the year was highlighted by a straight-set win over Northland Pines that snapped a 62-match Great Northern Conference losing streak.

“This year’s varsity team had a really good year compared to the past,” Wolter said. “Throughout the year we saw numerous compliments in conference about how you guys played from other coaches, officials. It was a successful year, getting double-digit wins for the first time in I don’t know how long, along with finally getting off the conference-loss streak. That’s something to be proud of. I know I am of you guys. We did a lot of great things this year continuing the growth we’ve had the past couple of years. It’s starting to build up and win games and stay competitive throughout the entire season.”

Aside from varsity letters, the only individual awards handed out during the banquet were previously-announced All-Great Northern Conference honors to Treder and Chiamulera. 

Treder was by far Rhinelander’s most efficient attacker on the team, hitting at a .194 clip in conference play and .251 overall. Her 116 total kills were second on the team behind junior Kelsi Beran (134). 

Chiamulera had 137 digs in GNC play and led the team with 296 digs overall. That was more than 100 ahead of the runner-up in that category, sophomore Libbey Buchmann (194).

In other categories, junior Lucy Lindner led the team in assists this year (347) and tied with Buchmann for the most service aces on the team (48). Buchmann was also the team’s most efficient player at the service line, getting the ball in play on 93.8% of her serves. Beran led the team in block solos (26) while Treder led the team in overall blocks (41).

Rhinelander went 13-25 overall this season and tied for sixth in the GNC with a 1-11 mark.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].