Hodag volleyball swept by Tomahawk in GNC opener

A young Rhinelander squad was not able to keep up with an experienced Tomahawk unit Thursday night in the Great Northern Conference volleyball opener.

The Hatchets swept the Hodags 25-13, 25-17, 25-17 at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium. 

With senior Libbey Buchmann, the Hodags’ lone all-conference player from last year, undergoing season-ending knee surgery earlier on Thursday, a relatively green varsity squad struggled to match Tomahawk’s firepower and Rhinelander’s inconsistent attack proved to be too much of a deficit for the Hodags to overcome. According to the team’s statistics, Rhinelander gave away nearly a set’s worth of points in attacking errors (19) and service errors (3). 

“I feel like there was some good learning takeaways. Do I feel like we could have played just a lot better? Sure,” Hodag coach Jayme Wyss said. “Next time we’re going to be looking at OK, we know what to expect. We have notes on all their servers. We may not have the putaway power, but how do we make sure that we’re not the first to screw up? Volleyball’s a game of a lot of mistakes.”

Tomahawk led wire-to-wire in the first set, jumping out to an early 11-4 lead. The Hodags got back within 15-10 before the Hatchets reeled off six straight points as part of a 10-3 run to close out the set. 

The Hodags scored the first three points of the second, but the Hatchets responded with a 15-3 run from there to take control. Rhinelander got within 19-13 late and staved off three set points before eventually dropping the second. 

It was a similar story in the third set, after scoring the opening two points, Rhinelander gave up the next six and fell behind 14-7 before making a run. Two kills and an ace by Cassidy Linder started a 6-1 run that for Rhinelander back within 15-13, but Tomahawk was able to respond with seven of the next nine points and cruised to the clinching win. 

“I think that at least we were in it at moments,” Wyss said. “We made good comeback runs. Third set, I think it was, we made a comeback run of a few points where it was like, ‘OK, let’s see if we can actually catch up.’ And then they rotated in a server and we couldn’t respond. There was good things. It’s just, you know, we always wish we could do better.”

The Hodags had a balanced attack on Thursday. Ava Rathbun, Olivia Ruetz and Lindner each had four kills for the team, but the team hit at a minus-7.5 percent clip (14 kills, 19 errors, 67 total attacks) on the night. 

Freshman Kylie Treder, who has taken on the team’s primary setter role with Buchmann out of the lineup, had nine assists on the night while freshman Maddie Paulson had a team-high 12 digs and recorded four service aces. 

“I do appreciate and really like how Kylie will, on the fly, she will just make really good decisions. …  Her and I have talked about before every play, look around and know where your hitters are, know how to move the ball,” Wyss noted. “Maddie Paulson, she played phenomenal in the back. She had the most aces. You’re coming as a freshman and you don’t have the height on your side. I mean, she went negative on her hitting. But she’d also pull out some smart things, and she dug up some things that were really tight on the net. That was impressive.”

    Rhinelander’s Libbey Buchmann (22) watches from the bench during a GNC volleyball match against Tomahawk at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium Thursday, Sept. 4. Buchmann, the Hodags’ lone all-conference player last year, underwent season-ending knee surgery on Thursday. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Buchmann watched from the bench on Thursday, hours after surgery. Wyss said the team appreciated her presence, though her absence on the floor will definitely leave a void as the season progresses.

“It was just nice having her there. And I think the girls really appreciated that,” she said. “… There’s some players that are going to have a harder time letting go of what could have been, and just focusing on here’s what we have, let’s make the best of it.”

Rhinelander (1-10, 0-1 GNC) continues conference play tonight at Antigo and will travel to Prentice Thursday for a non-conference triangular. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].