Hodag spikers fall to Antigo in four sets

On Tuesday evening, the Rhinelander High School volleyball team showed glimpses of both of where it has been and where it hopes to be with time.

The Hodags stole a set from Antigo, but ran out of steam down the stretch as they fell 25-17, 24-26, 25-9, 25-18 in a GNC match at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.

Though Rhinelander (4-13, 0-2 Great Northern) dropped its second straight match to start the season, it claimed its second set in conference play — something the team is trying to do as new coach Jayme Wyss looks to take the team from a perennial back marker to a legitimate contender. 

“One of our goals was to take a set from every team in conference this season. We do have really great moments, and I feel like we can spar with almost any team,” she said. “If you look at the progression from one competition to the next, you can definitely see it. It’s a long battle, but every day we are working to get better than the last.”

The Hodags led most of the way in the second set on Tuesday, and fought off a few tense moments down the stretch to bring some excitement to the home fans. Kelsi Beran recorded two of her three service aces on the night in succession to put Rhinelander ahead 19-17 in the second and the Hodags eventually pulled ahead 24-21 on a Lexi Beran kill. 

Antigo inched back to tie the set thanks to a pair of Sydnie Heinzen kills that bookended an attack into the net by Rhinelander’s Lucy Lindner. The Red Robins ultimately misfired in the final moments of the set. Lola Cornelius missed the subsequent serve to give the Hodags their third set point and Antigo was called for a net violation on what they thought was a set-tying block as the Hodags held on for the win. 

But, just as things did for Rhinelander after taking the second set in the GNC opener at Tomahawk, momentum went away in the third set for the Hodags. The Robins finished the set on a 14-0 run that included three aces from Ava Cornelius and then led wire-to-wire in the final set. 

“Third set was 100% serve receive,” Wyss said. “We shifted girls around, ran out of timeouts, tried to sub in order to change it up on the floor. Nothing seemed to work. But after the third set, at least we can shift our mentality to the score being back 0-0 and go from there.

“Still fell behind (in the fourth set), but at least we mentally stayed in it and could rally back there for a while. The inexperience definitely shows. When a couple girls are hot, one night, it covers for those that aren’t, but then on the flipside, there’s always a gap and we just aren’t consistent with what we’re doing out there yet.”

    Rhinelander libero Tori Stella bumps the ball ahead of teammate Kayla Skubal (6) during the second set GNC volleyball match against Antigo at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium Tuesday, Sept. 10. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

The first set was back and forth early, featuring seven ties and six lead changes, but Antigo took the lead for good at 13-12 and inched away. Antigo’s official statistics were not available as of press time, but the Robins attack featured a big swing by Lola Cornelius, one of the top returning attackers in the GNC from 2023. Tristin Arlen handled most of the setting and caught the Hodags off guard early with a number of fake sets. Layla Hulman recorded a number of block kills for the Robins in the middle. 

“The fast tempo of the other team was definitely hard to keep up with,” Wyss said. “We didn’t close our blocks on pins and then they would hit in the split and we didn’t lineup in the back row to take the split and so ball hit the floor. But we also had a lot of great digs. the girls really pulled together for some long volleys.”

Kelsi Beran led the Hodags with five kills while Ava Rathbun and Libbey Buchmann had four kills each. Buchmann added 12 assists, 13 digs and a pair of aces. Tori Stella had 12 digs while Reese Retallick and Lucy Lindner had nine digs each. Macey Schmoeger added a pair of solo block kills for the Hodags. 

The Hodags are back in action tomorrow as they take part in an eight-team invite in Wautoma.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].