Hodag volleyball swept out of playoffs by Merrill

MERRILL — There were points Tuesday night where the Rhinelander High School volleyball team looked poised to at least steal a set from higher-seeded Merrill in the WIAA playoffs. That the Hodags failed to do so was a microcosm of their first season under head coach Jayme Wyss. 

There were signs of improvement, signs of competitiveness, but not enough to get the Hodags over the hump on the scoreboard. 

That was the story again Tuesday night as the seventh-seeded Bluejays swept the 10th-seeded Hodags out of the playoffs 25-20, 25-20, 25-16 in Merrill. Rhinelander (12-27) held leads in all three sets, but the Bluejays always had the answer at key moments and the Hodags ran out of time to respond.

“There were great moments and (we need to) be proud of those great moments,” Wyss said afterward. “I feel like that’s our season a nutshell. We didn’t have the outcome we wanted but we had really great moments.”

The final turning point appeared to take place early in the third set when, trailing 9-7, the Hodags had a long volley with the Bluejays that lasted roughly a minute — with both sides featuring strong attacks and equally strong digs. Finally, Merrill set up senior Breleigh Raasch for a spike down the left sideline to win the point — a key moment in a 9-0 run the Bluejays used to seize control of the final set. 

“That’s the hard thing, when you have a really long volley, you’ve got to win. If you win it, that gives you a lot of momentum,” Wyss said. “I felt like they believed (they were in) it probably until that long point in the third set. Then it was like we just couldn’t catch a break.”

The first set went back and forth Tuesday, with the Hodags inching ahead 9-5 early before Merrill crawled back and tied the set at 14-all. The lead changed had five more times from that point, with Rhinelander going up 19-17 off a Libbey Buchmann kill and a pair of errors by Merrill freshman Kendell Klug, that prompted a Merrill timeout. 

Klug answered with two kills on the next three points out of the stoppage to put Merrill ahead. A Buchmann kill tied the set at 20, but back-to-back Grace Reimann putaways sparked a 5-0 run that gave the Bluejays the first set. 

Rhinelander then raced out to a 7-0 lead in the second on a string that included four aces from senior Lucy Lindner. Merrill answered with the next six points, however and the Bluejays finally took the lead for good on back-to-back kills by Raasch at 14-13. 

“We just lost the ball at the end (of the first set),” Wyss said. “We were in it the whole time and fumbled the ball and couldn’t recover. The second set. We were up 7-0. Lucy came in with five aces, just ridiculous, and we lost it.

“Even if we would have won one of the earlier sets, that would have made a difference, mindset-wise. When you get to that third set and it’s like, ‘You know what, we’re OK guys.’ You have a little more confidence.” 

    Rhinelander’s Macey Schmoeger looks up at the scoreboard after the final point of a WIAA Division 2 regional quarterfinal volleyball match in Merrill Tuesday, Oct. 22. Schmoeger is one of five Hodag seniors who played their final high school volleyball match on Tuesday. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Rhinelander hit .088 on the night with 21 kills and 13 errors on 91 total chances. Buchmann paced the Hodags with eight kills, while senior Kelsi Beran had six kills and senior Callie Hoerchler had four kills.

“Kelsi played a great game, only two errors and six kills. Libbey was on fire,” Wyss said. “It was like feed Libbey, feed Kelsi. Callie pulled herself around. She was at zero (attacking percentage) for a while. They were doing good things and, again, we just can’t get over the hump and get a win.”

Buchmann added a team-high 17 digs along with a pair of block kills. Lucy Lindner finished with 17 assists, 11 digs and five aces. Lexi Beran chipped in a pair of block kills for Rhinelander. 

Afterward, Wyss expressed some frustration, given that it was the first time in her varsity coaching career that she had a team finish below. 500 and bow out in the first round of the WIAA tournament. For Rhinelander, it marked the program’s 12th straight sub-.500 season and the tenth straight year without a playoff victory.

“I don’t know if it’s because we’re playing catchup because we’ve been terrible for six years or what. We have the potential,” Wyss said. “It’s frustrating because they already booked for open gym, our gym tomorrow. Even Rhinelander expects us to lose. Our fan section is so sparse. We’re better than this. I know it’s going to take time. It takes three to four years to overhaul a program, but there’s so much potential there and no one believes in them, that’s what it feels like.”

When contacted by the River News Wednesday morning, RHS activities director Brian Paulson did confirm that basketball open gym was penciled in for the after school time slot Wednesday at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium. He was also quick to note that it would have been preempted and the volleyball team would have had its normal practice time Wednesday had it won Tuesday night. 

Wyss said she didn’t say much in the postgame huddle after Tuesday’s match, but commended the effort put forth by the five seniors on the team this season.

“There’s a lot of emotions and girls crying, but they should be proud that they did show up, we did play,” she said. “It’s not how we wanted, but they should at least be proud that we came in and put up a fight and had really long volleys.”

The Hodags enter the offseason with 11 underclassmen slated to return from this year’s varsity roster, including Buchmann and much of the team’s back row.

“We want to pursue more of those great moments and it’s going to take a lot more work,” she said. “t’s really up to them. How bad to they want it? Are they willing to put in the time and work? … You can’t win with just three girls playing club. Typically it takes five. Who wants it enough to go out there?”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].