Raiders seem to be finding their groove at just the right time

MEDFORD VOLLEYBALL

Like any team, the Medford Raiders have set a goal of playing their best volleyball when it matters most at the end of the season. Based on their play of the past couple of weeks, they are headed in that direction.

The Raiders improved to 6-3 in Great Northern Conference play and got back to .500 overall for the first time in more than three weeks with a solid 3-0 sweep of host Lakeland Tuesday. With the win, Medford avenged a five-set loss Lakeland handed it in the first GNC meet back on Sept. 18 and stayed on Tomahawk’s heels in the race for second place in the league standings behind likely champion Mosinee.

Tomahawk is a half-game ahead of Medford at 6-2 and faces a tough schedule Saturday in the second GNC meet of the year, which will be held at Mosinee. The Hatchets will face Northland Pines (4-4), Lakeland (4-5) and Mosinee (7-0), while Medford sees Rhinelander (0-8) in round one and Pines in round three.

Medford finishes league play and the regular season Tuesday at Mosinee, while Tomahawk visits Antigo (2-7).

In Tuesday’s win, Medford took a close first set 25-22 and then pulled away in the next two sets for 25-19 and 25-18 wins to even its overall record for the season at 14-14.

Offensively, Rynn Ruesch continued her strong play with a team-high 10 kills, while Megan Fredrikson added with no errors in 26 swings. Allie Paulson had five kills and Laurissa Klapatauskas had four. Gabby Brunner had three of Medford’s five aces. Emma Brost, filling for the unavailable Katie Lybert, had a teamhigh 16 assists, while Paulson had 12.

Defensively, Ruesch had two solo blocks and six players had at least a dozen digs. Brunner led the team with 16, Martha Miller had 14, Brost had 13 and Paulson, Klapatauskas and Olivia Krug had 12 each.

Medford 3, Antigo 1

Senior Night jitters hit Medford early, but the Raiders settled down and played solid volleyball in the final three games in a 3-1 victory over Antigo Thursday at Raider Hall.

All 11 seniors saw action in set one in their final regular-season home appearance, but little went right as the Red Robins tore out to an 8-1 lead and never looked back in a 25-9 win.

“At the beginning, we were super excited and ready to play,” Lybert said. “We wanted to win and that’s all we wanted. Then we got out there and we were like we’ve never played before.”

“I think our emotions got to us a lot,” Ruesch said. “We wanted it so bad.”

Back to their normal lineup and rotations in game two, the Raiders settled down after a thunderous kill from Klapatauskas tied it at 7-7 and a couple of tough serves from Krug and a Miller kill opened up a 14-8 lead.

Ruesch also started to take over at the net with her attacks and her blocking. Her push to the corner off a Lybert assist widened the lead to 21-13. Klapatauskas connected on other big cross attack and Paulson served an ace as Medford tied the match with a 25-16 win.

“That second game we were like, ‘let’s talk, we got this’ and then we finally came back and played like we knew we can,” Lybert said. “We just kept on going and kept on swinging. It was amazing. Our passing was awesome. Our energy got higher after a good hit, we were going crazy.”

The Raiders showed poise in both the third and fourth games with huge late runs to wipe out early deficits. Antigo led game three 10-6, 13-7 and 15-10 when Medford rallied. With Miller serving, the Raiders went on a 9-0 surge that included a key block from Ruesch and key roll shot from Fredrikson. The Raiders answered a Lexy Beckingham kill with a Brunner ace and a powerful spike from Fredrikson and rode that energy to a 25-17 win.

The Raiders finished it off with an even bigger run in game four. The Raiders trailed 11-6 and 14-11, but Ruesch’s kill gave the Raiders and Lybert the serve. The senior rattled off 13 serves in a row, with three aces and Ruesch ended the 25-14 win a loud block at the net.

“I thought we looked good tonight,” head coach Cheryl Schreiner said. “The back-row movement and the picking up of tips was good. The stuff we were letting fall earlier, people are now instinctively going for it. We’ve talked about defensive responsibilities. Do your defensive assignment. And tonight, I literally told them to turn their brains off. This whole senior group is, one to 11, they’re all overthinkers. I’m like ‘turn your brains off. You’ve all been doing this a long time. Go out there and play.’” Ruesch said it is something special to have had 11 seniors stick it out with the sport since they started playing club ball eight seasons ago.

“I think it shows we have a lot of talent and it’s hard for coach to know who to put in,” she said. “I’m happy with all the girls that we have.”

Ruesch had seven kills in 21 attacks, two solo blocks and three assisted blocks.

“Rynn has really come into her own,” Schreiner said. “She sees the court so well right now. She’s really taken a giant step.”

Fredrikson and Miller had six kills apiece. Fredrikson had just three errors in 33 attacks. Miller had 22 digs, while Klapatauskas and Paulson had 18 each and Lybert and Krug had 15 apiece.

Lybert led the team with four aces, while Brunner had three and Paulson had two. Lybert had 17 assists.

“We’re going to keep this momentum going into our next few games and see how far we can go,” Lybert said.