RHS volleyball swept by Medford

The Rhinelander High School volleyball team lacked the firepower to keep up with Medford Thursday night at home. 

The Raiders pulled away in each of the three sets to score a 25-12, 25-13, 25-14 win over the Hodags at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.

While attention was focused on Medford sophomore Kayla Baumgartner, who came into the match leading the GNC at 4.4 kills per set, the Raiders had plenty of other weapons that kept the Hodag defense on their toes all night long. 

“They’re a good team. We know that. They’re second in conference for a reason. They’re a team that picks up everything. You’ve got to be swinging, finding the holes, finding the splits,” Hodag coach Jayme Wyss said afterward. “We would have long rallies because our defense could pick stuff up but, then again on the flip side, they also have terminators. If they get a tight set on the net and our block isn’t beating them there, they’re just going to hammer it down and it’s going to hit the floor.”

Medford’s firepower began to show through as it took control midway through both the first and second sets. Rhinelander was within three, down 13-10, after a Tori Stella ace in the first, but the Raiders came up with kills on five of the next eight points — including three by Toryn Rau and two from Sophia Steinman — to go up 20-11. Kills by Rau and Baumgartner followed by back-to-back Rhinelander errors gave the Raiders the opening set. 

Rhinelander led early in the second set. Medford eventually took the lead at 8-7 and was up 15-11 when it went on a decisive run. Shayla Radlinger got a kill for a side out and then Aliyah Pilgrim went on a serving run of five points to push the advantage to 21-11. A kill and an ace down the stretch by Radlinger helped Medford take a 2-0 lead in the match. 

Wyss said, Medford’s tempo had the Hodags on the back foot and scrambling much of the evening.

“I feel like we’re just a half second too late on everything — either on the blocks or shifting,” she said. “Are they reading it fast enough to shift on the court … We’re just that one step behind them. That’s the reason they’re second in conference and we’re second from the bottom.” 

Medford raced out to a 20-3 lead in the third set before the Hodags made a late rally —cutting the lead to nine at one point before the Raiders put the match away.

Rhinelander struggled to get much offense going on Thursday, finishing the night with a minus-.079 attacking percentage. The Hodags had 14 kills and 20 errors in 76 chances. Macey Schmoeger and Kelsi Beran had three kills each while Libbey Buchan had just one kill and five errors in 18 attacks. 

“We were not in a good rhythm. We were just struggling,” Wyss said. “Kelsi had some good stuff. Macey had some good stuff, but even when Kelsi slammed one and they dug it up and brought it back. When we finally got something good, their defense is also that good.”

Lucy Lindner had 14 assists for Rhinelander, Tori Stella had 15 digs and Kayla Skubal chipped in a pair of service aces. 

Baumgartner unofficially finished with 11 kills on the night for the Raiders while Rau had six kills. 

The night served a greater purpose than just a volleyball match as it was the team’s Playing for a Cure Night for breast cancer awareness. The Hodags swapped Kelly green for pink on its jerseys for the night and several contests and fundraisers were held during the event to support SDR employee Holly Klaas, who is currently battling Stage 1 breast cancer. 

The event was co-sponsored by the RHS Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) chapter. According to an SDR press release $1,600 was raised during the event, which will go to the Klaas family to help with medical expenses, lost wages, daycare, gas, food, and other needs associated with her treatments. 

“We want to thank everyone who came to the Playing for a Cure game and supported RHS HOSA and Hodag Volleyball in their effort to raise money for Holly Klaas,” the release stated. “Thank you to everyone who came out and supported our students and their efforts to raise money for an important cause!”

The Hodags (11-22, 2-6 Great Northern) are idle until this Saturday when they travel to Medford to face Antigo, Lakeland and Mosinee in the second leg of the Great Northern Conference tournament. Wyss said nine days between matches is not ideal for her squad, but that the team will try to do some things to make practice as competitive as possible. 

“We’ll do a little coaches versus varsity one night just to get that play. I know they’ll want to beat us so just creating a game-like competition, feel and pressure,” she said. “That’s a long span. It could really go two ways. Is it going to make you hungry or is it going to leave you a little slow. So we’ll see.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].