Hodag volleyball drops close sets at home invite

The Rhinelander High School volleyball team had chances to take several sets on Thursday, but only came away with one as it dropped both matches in a home triangular at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.

Rhinelander lost the opener to Prentice 25-18, 25-22, 18-25 and then was swept by Amherst in the nightcap 25-15, 25-22, 25-10. The Hodags held leads in late in the second set of both matches as they tried to make the final set meaningful in terms of the match, however the Hodags couldn’t close out a 20-18 lead against the Buccaneers or a 22-20 advantage against the Falcons.

“Just can’t finish it,” Hodag coach Jayme Wyss said. “That second said it was like, this is your shot. We’re going to three anyway ... And again, we just can’t come away with the wins. I think that’s a frustrating part. It’s like, we can play good defense all day.”

Both of the first two sets against Prentice were close. Rhinelander led 11-10 and trailed 16-15 following an ace, but the Bucs closed the set on a 9-2 run. 

After jumping ahead 14-8 in the second set, the Hodags gave up a 7-0 run to fall behind by one. The Hodags got the lead back to 20-18 and thought it had a 21-19 lead on an Olivia Ruetz kill, but she was called for landing over the line on her swing, tying the match at 20. A couple of errors put Rhinelander ahead 22-21, but the Bucs scored the final four points to clinch the match.

With the match clinched, Prentice changed some personnel for the final set. The Hodags jumped out to a 5-0 lead and lead 15-6 as they cruised in the finale.

“Prentice was really good playing for us,” Wyss said. “When they played Amherst, No. 12 for Prentice (Leah Lord) pounded the snot out of them. You didn’t even notice her when we were playing them. We just dug everything. I think our digs were through the roof. We just played so good defense.”

After dropping the first set against the Falcons, Rhinelander was down 11-5 in the second before clawing back. Rhinelander got within 19-16 on a pair of Ruetz aces and then went on a 4-0 run to take a 22-20 lead on a sequence that included back-to-back kills by Tori Stella. The Falcons responded with back-to-back kills to tie it, followed by a pair of Rhinelander errors. Kinzie Martin tipped down game point for the Falcons to clinch the match. 

Amherst rolled in the final set as the Hodags struggled to shake the close loss in the second.

“We lost all our energy at the end. At the end of the day, you want to be able to like, go home and feel proud of how you played it, even if it was a loss,” Wyss said. “We’ve had really hard-fought games where like, you can feel good. Even Antigo, that fourth set where we were getting eaten alive and we had like a run of six points at the end, that’s important to end that way. You can at least be, ‘OK, I can be proud of how we finished, right?’ We came back, we fought. But how we ended the last one, it’s just really hard to come away with a good feeling on it.”

Ruetz led the Hodags with nine kills on the night, Stella had seven kills and sophomore Vayda Ives, in her first varsity appearance, was one of three players with five kills for the team. 

“Olivia is just, I don’t think tonight was as strong, but again, like, compared to everybody else, she was doing just fine. I mean, she’s just such a strong force at the net,” Wyss said. “Vayda, we pulled up from JV1 tonight. This was her first night playing. She practiced with us for the first time last night. She honestly did really well. She was super nervous. The girls had a pep talk her a lot. Sometimes adjusting a little better, she’s not used to such big blockers, but she fit in just fine. So I’m proud of her.”

Kayla Skubal had a team-high 31 digs and had six service aces. Stella added 21 digs, Kylie Treder had 25 assists and Corynn Waksmonski recorded a pair of blocks.

The Hodags were scheduled to play a GNC match at Medford on Friday, but that event was postponed to Thursday, Oct. 2. Medford had planned to stage Friday’s game outdoors, setting up a temporary court on its football field, however the plan was scrapped with rain in the forecast. 

The teams will play indoors when the match is made up Oct. 2.

Rhinelander is back in action tonight, facing GNC-leading Mosinee on the road. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].