Raiders bringing the energy, expect improvement in 2023

MEDFORD VOLLEYBALL PREVIEW

If you stopped by Raider Hall during the first week-plus of practices, you would’ve noticed an obvious uptick in energy among the members of Medford’s volleyball program, both players and coaches.

The hope, as the new season begins under the entirely new coaching staff led by head coach Ashley Jochimsen-McCarron, is that the early emphasis on family and togetherness leads to sustained improvement during the season and a chance to enjoy more on-court success.

The Raiders started the season with a “midnight madness” first practice and lock-in during the wee morning hours of Aug. 14, did some serious team bonding on the high ropes course at Forest Springs on Aug. 17 and, in between, put in some hard hours in the gym and tested themselves in Saturday scrimmage sessions at D.C. Everest.

“There was high energy in the gym,” Jochimsen-McCarron said of the first week after Monday’s practice. “Girls worked hard. We had lots of conditioning, lots of energy, lots of talking and movement. It was good. We saw lots of good things.”

Jochimsen-McCarron and her varsity assistants Amanda Lange and Grace Krug oversee a varsity roster of 12 players, seven of whom earned letters during last year’s 14-20 campaign that included a 7-5 mark and third-place finish in the Great Northern Conference. It’s a team they characterize as young but not inexperienced.

The coaches and the team’s experienced leaders see it as a group that has improved since last October and has a chance to make some noise this fall in the GNC and beyond.

“A lot of us were either together during summer league or in our tournament down in the Dells (Aug. 11-12) and, just from that time, we’ve improved so much,” said Cami Rau, one of four varsity seniors. “I feel like we trust each other to a certain extent and we don’t really get down on each other. We understand that people make mistakes.”

“We’re really comfortable with each other,” returning junior Toryn Rau added. “We’re talking and communicating and lifting each other up.”

As for the energy that’s been in the gym early on, the coaches and players give each other credit for bringing that.

“Their energy matches us,” Cami Rau said. “They’re dancing with us. They’re singing with us. They’re doing the workouts with us so they know exactly how we feel during that practice.”

“They’re able to have fun with us,” Toryn Rau said. “They know how to push us in the best ways.”

“And they do push us in the best ways,” Cami Rau added.

“I think that midnight practice brought energy,” said Krug, a former head coach at Green Bay Southwest and now a teacher at Medford Area Middle School. “They came storming into the gym. It was fun and different.”

“I think the leadership that some of these girls have taken is coming through,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “Some of these girls have done a nice job stepping up.”

“The goal is to be a family,” Lange said. Of course, she and Jochimsen-Mc-Carron take the family theme a notch higher than everyone else being sisters. All three of the varsity coaches were high-caliber players in the MASH program in the early 2000s. “The girls are willing to learn, they’re ready to learn and they work hard.”

This year’s varsity veterans are the two Raus, seniors Rachel Wesle and Emily-Grace Rudolph, juniors Shayla Radlinger and Megan Schaefer and sophomore Rylee Hraby, who earned secondteam All-GNC honors at the libero position last fall. All seven of the returners won their first varsity letters last year, playing for a team that began the year with very little varsity experience but turned itself into a competitive crew by year’s end under sixth-year head coach Cheryl Schreiner, who stepped down this spring.

Moving up from last year’s JV team are senior Hannah Fleegel, junior Amelia Pernsteiner and sophomores Finley Arndt and Aliyah Pilgrim. Freshman Kayla Baumgartner fills out the initial 12-player roster.

Baumgartner brings some height and another outside hitter from the left side to go with Cami Rau. Toryn Rau and Radlinger are getting the first looks in the middle of the front row while Wesle, Pernsteiner, Fleegel competing for time on the right side. Radlinger also could see time on the outside.

Hraby is back at the libero, while Rudolph, Pilgrim and Arndt all should see back-row time. Schaefer returns as a reliable setter, but Arndt and Pilgrim could factor in with those duties as well.

The Raiders were holding their breath a bit after Monday’s practice after Baumgartner went down with an ankle injury in the last few minutes. That prompted a promotion for freshman Taylor Klingbeil “We’re still playing with a couple of different lineups and finalizing things,” Jochimsen-Mc-Carron said. “They’re all natural athletes. They’re able to come in and go and play hard. They all want to win and work together as a team so that’s nice.”

“There’s versatility in the lineup,” Lange said. “There are a couple of girls who could easily move around with posi-tions and they’re open to that too.”

From an offensive standpoint, the Raiders won’t intimidate most teams with height at net, but they feel they’ll be potent enough.

The hitter-setter connection is something that doesn’t come easily but it’s something that we work on every day,” Toryn Rau said. “We run hitting lines everyday and I feel like that’s something where we’ll gain throughout the season.”

“I think our passing has improved a lot from last season, our serve receive has gotten a lot better,” Cami Rau said.

Serving is also an area Medford feels will be more effective this year as well.

The key to all, as it is with all volleyball teams is communication on the court and this team feels like it will have that.

“(High ropes) was just team bonding,” Toryn Rau said. “We shared a lot of laughs on that high ropes course but we also shared tears. We’ve gained knowledge of what someone else needs. It helped us to be vulnerable to each other to know what each other needs.”

“I think they learned a lot at team building about each other and how to communicate, trust each other and how to help each other through hard things,” Krug said. “When you’re very scared you forget about being cool or being an underclassman. There were underclassmen being leaders. You had to have each other’s back because it was terrifying.”

The Raiders officially kicked off the season by going 3-2 at Tuesday’s Three Lakes Invitational. They’ll get a lot of chances to test lineup combinations this weekend at the two-day Menomonie Sprawl, held on the UW-Stout campus. Then it’s on to conference play when Lakeland visits Raider Hall for the 7 p.m. home opener on Aug. 31. The GNC has a wideopen feel to it to start the year. Mosinee’s five-year reign ended last year when Tomahawk went 12-0 in league play, but the Hatchets lost their driving force, GNC Player of the Year Meghan Scholz, and two more seniors who earned All-GNC honors. The Raiders see an opening and they’re going to try to take advantage. “It’s going to be hard, but if we keep working toward it, I think it’s achievable,” Toryn Rau said. “All of these girls have the dedication to achieve it,” Cami Rau said. “We’re all together working for the same goal.”