Hodag volleyball has happy home ending vs. Hurley

It has undoubtedly been a long season for the Rhinelander High School volleyball team but, in its final match of the regular season on Monday, the Hodags finally had a signature moment to call their own.

Rhinelander led wire-to-wire in a decisive fifth set as it knocked off Hurley in a non-conference match at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium. The back and forth affair saw Hurley win the first set 25-20 before the Hodags took the next two 25-18, 25-22. Hurley won the fourth 25-23 to force the final set, but Rhinelander pulled away late for a 15-9 victory.

It was just the third match win of the season for the Hodags, and the first since the Phillips Invite Sept. 27. More importantly, for a senior class that has seen more downs than ups in its high school career, it was a ending ray of sunshine in their final home match. 

“I said to my seniors that play, I’m sorry that you didn’t get to experience more of this all season,” Hodag coach Jayme Wyss said. “This is what I’m used to. This is what I miss — the energy and we’re committed, and you don’t know what’s gonna happen, but we’re in it, and we’re just bringing all the momentum. I’m like sorry we couldn’t have more of this. But I hope you come back and watch because we got a lot more of it in the future.”

    Rhinelander’s Tori Stella bumps the ball as fellow senior teammate Kayla Skubal looks on during a non-conference volleyball match against Hurley at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium Monday, Oct. 13. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Senior Tori Stella had two of her nine service aces on the night to stake Rhinelander to a 5-0 lead in the final set. Nearly all of that advantage had vanished after the Hodags let back-to-back balls drop to the floor as the Northstars got within 8-7 and forced Wyss to burn a timeout. 

“A lot of it was like, ‘OK, you guys just need to make the passes and attack,’” she said. “It was like, back to the basics of when did you guys play the best and get the wins? When they were talking really well.”

The timeout did more to rattle Hurley than anything else as the Northstars committed three straight errors before an Ellie Cummings kill made it 12-7. That was the last put away Rhinelander had in the match, as Hurley committed back-to-back errors to give Rhinelander match point up 14-8. Olivia DiGiorgio staved off one match point on a kill, but Hurley’s top hitter, sophomore Alexandra Tolemy, was called for a line violation on the next rally, giving the Hodags the match. 

“It was so good. to just see these girls come alive,” Wyss said. “And I think that’s one of the things we struggled with the most this season. We’ll get into games that I feel like we could win, and we don’t and I feel like a lot of it is, is that the belief isn’t there. I’ve talked about that before. And tonight, it was like, ‘OK, girls, you have to be in a mindset where we’re gonna come out and we’re gonna play hard.’”

Rhinelander relinquished a 14-12 lead in the first set as the Northstars went on a 9-1 run to go up 21-15. Rhinelander got back within four on two separate occasions at 23-19 and 24-20, but Tolemy tipped a ball down to give Hurley the opening set. 

Momentum shifted Rhinelander’s way in the second set as it jumped out to a 5-1 lead and later went on a 7-0 run on Stella’s serve that made it 18-7. Hurley made a run to get within six at 21-15, but a Cummings kill followed by a Maddie Paulson ace made it 23-15 and sophomore Vayda Ives ended the set a few points later on a tip kill. 

Wyss said she could sense the momentum shift in the set as the Hodags picked up more energy.

“We talked about the importance of the bench and the floor. You have to celebrate everything. And when you make those mistakes, you’re gonna lift each other up and motivate each other. You have to be louder than them, and you could tell the moments. Second set, we came out, and who was the loudest? Hands down (we were). Everything changed when we committed to being loud and, all of a sudden, we had that run of we were ahead 10 points. And you could see them just go quiet and the errors come in.”

The Hodags withstood a late run to take a third set that was underscored by errors down the stretch. Hurley committed three straight attacking errors to put Rhinelander up 21-18, but then Rhinelander committed four straight miscues to give the Northstars a one-point lead. Hurley committed three more errors to give Rhinelander set point, which freshman Corynn Waksmonski put down for one of her seven kills on the night. 

The teams sparred back and forth again in the fourth set. Down 23-20, the Hodags rallied to tie it on a kill by Ives followed by back-to-back aces by Cummings, but a line call and a passing error on the next two points gave Hurley the 25-23 win and forced a fifth set. 

It was a strong night for the two seniors on the Hodag roster. Kayla Skubal led the team with 24 digs from the libero position while Stella had 16 digs and was 18 of 20 on the serve with nine aces.

“Nine aces is a lot. There were sections of time where it was just like we want Tori touching the ball,” Wyss noted. 

Olivia Ruetz led the Hodags with 12 kills on 55 total attacks. Waksmonski finished the night 30% on the attack with seven kills and one error on 20 chances. She also added a pair of block kills. Cummings hit at 25% on the night with seven kills and two errors on 25 chances. 

“Olivia would have led in kills, but she also led in a huge amount of errors (14), but to still keep attacking and for everybody around her to still rally behind her and believe in her (was important),” Wyss noted. “Ellie’s so raw that I think she forgets to put herself in a good hittable position. She’s still getting stuck too close to the net, but yet, look at her, the way that she reaches with her shoulder and wraps it really well. Corynn has had some games where she’s struggled recently. And I know she was really sick, and so she’s still, fundamentally, lacking some things, but she played so well tonight.”

Kylie Treder had 17 assists for the Hodags while Addy Wiczek added 11 assists. Maddie Paulson had 16 digs and four aces. Cassidy Lindner added 12 kills. 

Conference tournament

    Rhinelander’s Olivia Ruetz goes up for an attack during a match against Antigo at the Great Northern Conference volleyball tournament in Eagle River Saturday, Oct. 11. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

The Hodags dropped all three of their matches this past Saturday at the Great Northern Conference tournament in Eagle River to finish in eighth place in the final conference standings. 

The Hodags started the day with a 25-12, 25-15, 25-13 loss to top-seeded Merrill. The Hodags lost in the consolation semifinal to Northland Pines 25-13, 25-7, 25-11 and then dropped the seventh-place match to Antigo 25-13, 25-14, 26-24.

Mosinee came into the day at the top-ranked team in Division 2. Wyss said, despite Mosinee’s strong record, the Hodags once again seemed to spar well with the Indians, just like they did in their match last moth at Mosinee. 

On the other side of the coin, Rhinelander has had its struggles — both in and out of conference play against Northland Pines this year. That continued on Saturday as Pines raced out to a 19-9 lead in the first set, a 13-2 lead in the second set and a 15-7 lead in the third set. 

The Hodags closed against Antigo — the only GNC team Rhinelander won a set from during the regular season. The Hodags had moments early and late in that match. Rhinelander was within 16-12 when it called its first timeout in the opening set, but the Robins finished on a 9-1 run to close out the set. Rhinelander led 11-7 in the third set before Antigo raced ahead to take a 23-19 lead. The Hodags scored five of the next six to force extra points but couldn’t get over the hump.

Ruetz led the Hodags with 11 kills on the day while Cummings and Ives had seven kills each. Kylie Treder had 14 assists on the day while Addy Wiczek had 12. 

The Hodags lost Stella due to an illness after the Mosinee match. The only other healthy senior on the roster, Skubal, paced the Hodags with 29 digs. Treder had 20 digs, Maddie Paulson had 23 digs and Lindner finished with 25 digs, six kills and five service aces on the day. 

Playoffs ahead

The Hodags received the 12th and final seed in their D2 regional and will travel to fifth-seeded Mauston this coming Tuesday to begin the WIAA tournament. Wyss said the underdog Hodags come into the match with nothing to lose.

“You just go out there and you play your best,” she said. “We have a super long ride. Mosinee has the No. 1 seed. They’re ranked No. 1 in D2. We can go in and we have great attitudes when it’s a good team. I think when it’s a team that we feel like they’re not a good team, this should be easy, that’s when we get frustrated and flustered. If they bring anything close to, like Medford or Merrill or Mosinee, I feel like we go down there and fight and then we have nothing to feel bad about. 

The winner of that game will be back in the Wisconsin Dells area on Thursday to face fourth-seeded Reedsburg.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].