RHS volleyball 16th in Friendship Tourney

The Rhinelander High School volleyball team won only one match last weekend but that was good enough for the Hodags to finish 16th in the 24-team Friendship Tournament in Wisconsin Dells.

The victory was a three-setter over Rio in pool play last Friday. That was enough to elevate the Hodags in the silver bracket for Saturday’s games. Rhinelander lost all three of its games Saturday after going 1-3 Friday.

“As much as we would like to instantly see progress, is important remember that we’re only two weeks into the season,” Hodag coach Jayme Wyss said afterward. “We have a lot of young girls and just a lot of work to do. We are always looking for ways to improve and get better. The biggest thing is that we use every opportunity to learn.”

Rhinelander started the tournament with a three-set loss to Lake Mills. After dropping the opener 25-18 the Hodags rallied for a 25-19 win in the second set to force a decider, which it dropped 15-8. That was followed by a 25-13, 25-8 loss to Cashton before the Hodags closed out pool play with a 25-17, 15-25, 15-10 win over Rio.

Those results put Rhinelander into one of six bracket challenge matches late Friday afternoon. The Hodags fell to Wausau West 25-20, 25-16 there, but ended up as the eighth and final team to make it into the silver bracket, based on overall results from the first day of play. 

Saturday’s matches all followed a similar script, with the Hodags playing more competitively in the second set than the first. Rhinelander fell to Peshtigo (25-5, 25-22), Wittenberg-Birnamwood (25-14, 25-22) and Oshkosh North (25-12, 25-22).

“We have been talking a lot about how to bring energy and momentum to a game, the importance of language and body language, etc,” Wyss said. “We had sets where we completely shut down, and had only single digits, to then come back against that same team, and only lose by a few points, because the girls were able to rally themselves and create that energy shift. They are having so many moments of great potential that shows, we just have not been able to pull off the win in the end.”

Libbey Buchmann totaled 31 kills and nine service aces over the two-day tournament, leading the team in those categories. She also had 27 assists, 23 digs and three blocks. 

Lucy Lindner had 36 assists and 21 digs, Tori Stella had 39 digs and eight aces. Kelsi Beran had 17 kills and four blocks and Callie Hoerchler added 13 kills. Reese Retallick had 25 digs and Cassidy Lindner added 21 digs.

“The returners who have experience showed how valuable experience is,” Wyss noted. “Libbey, Kelsi, Lucy, and Macey (Schmoeger) all brought a lot to the table. It was great having Tori back in as libero and Reese has been a solid contribution in the back row.” 

Rhinelander was one of two GNC teams in the tournament. Antigo finished as the runner-up in the gold bracket, falling to Stevens Point in three sets in the championship match.

The Hodags (2-9, 0-0 Great Northern) opened conference play on the road at Tomahawk Thursday night in a match that concluded after press time for today’s edition. Rhinelander will travel to Ashland for a 10-team invite tomorrow that will include fellow GNC foes Lakeland and Northland Pines.

“We would love to skip the painful growing pains and jump right to the end of season, where we put everything together, but it doesn’t work that way. One of the big focus is right now has just been preparing ourselves for conference play,” Wyss said.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].