Hodag volleyball swept by Mosinee

The Rhinelander High School volleyball team fell to Great Northern Conference-leading Mosinee in straight sets on Tuesday night.

The script followed what has been a familiar story for the Hodags so far this season. Rhinelander stayed close in the first half of each set but was unable to recover from mid-set Mosinee runs as Mosinee won 25-17, 25-14, 25-23.

“We came out and played really tough against them, I thought,” Hodag coach Dan Wolter said. “We hung with them until that part of the game again. We just got into a lot of really long volleys back and forth. Each team touched it three, four times and we were just unable to come up with those points.”

The first set was close, with Rhinelander trailing 12-10 before Mosinee went on a 9-1 run to stretch the lead to 10. The Hodags reeled off five straight points from there, but a missed serve by Libbey Buchmann ended the run and Mosinee took four of the final five points to claim the set. 

“They were able to stretch their lead a little bit and we just weren’t able to climb back in it,” Wolter said.

Rhinelander had an 11-8 lead on Mosinee in the second set before things went downhill. Mosinee scored 16 of the next 18 points to take control and eventually win by 11. 

“They got some separation with some good serving and we just weren’t able to get a good response,” Wolter said. “Then, with us, when we did get the serve, we missed too many serves on the other side and just gave them the ball right back.”

The Hodags led again in the third set, up 11-7 at one point as a couple of rotation violations put Mosinee behind.

“We definitely picked up some momentum out of some rotation errors on their part,” Wolter said. “They had the libero serve twice which got them out of rotation and got us a point that way. Then they had another issue with a back row play that they called. We picked up some points on their mistakes and kind of gave us some momentum. We actually used it tonight and it helped the girls push through and hang with them tough.”

Mosinee went on a 9-2 run to take a 22-16 lead in the third and eventually got up 24-18. A Kelsi Beran kill staved off the first match point and then Mosinee committed four straight attacking errors to get Rhinelander within 24-23, but a kill in the middle by Mosinee through Beran’s block attempt ultimately decided the match.

“In that third set we were down three, four points and were able to chip away late in the game and climb within two,” Wolter said. “It was a great set on our end and, hopefully, a good confidence builder for us heading into the weekend.”

The Hodags spread the attack again. Lily Treder recorded six kills, Beran had five and Buchmann chipped in four. A change in formation saw a share in the setting duties. Lucy Lindner finished with eight assists while Ava Krouze had seven. 

“We switched to a 6-2. Lucy and Ava Krouze did a good job of pushing the ball around and Lily and Kelsi kind of got the benefit of that with moving their block a little bit and opening holes,” Wolter said.

Emma Chiamulera had 15 digs for Rhinelander while Buchmann had seven. Buchmann and Lindner each recorded a pair of service aces on the night. 

MaKayla Weisner paced Mosinee with 10 kills while Tristan Wicklund, Bella Kyhos and Bridget Frey had six kills each.

Rhinelander (8-9, 0-3 Great Northern) suffered its 60th straight defeat in Great Northern Conference play dating back to the end of the 2017 season. 

The Hodags will look to snap that streak Saturday in the first GNC tournament of the year in Antigo. Rhinelander draws Medford and Tomahawk in the tournament. Both of those teams pulled out five-set victories on Tuesday.

“Medford and Tomahawk were up toward the top of the conference last year,” Wolter said. “I think if we continue with the momentum that we played with today and the confidence that we showed in each other, I think we can definitely put some stuff together and pull out a couple of wins.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].