MEDFORD INVITATIONAL - Strong all-out effort nets tourney championship for Medford

MEDFORD INVITATIONAL

With a 5-0 record that included three-set wins over Gilman and Stanley-Boyd and a 2-0 sweep of Columbus Catholic, the Medford Raiders got their volleyball season off to a fine start Tuesday by taking the championship in their six-team Medford Invitational.

The tournament title came down to a lastround clash between Medford and Stanley-Boyd. The Raiders took game one 25-22, the Orioles came back to win set two by the same score. The end of game three got dicey for a moment, but Medford closed its title run with a 15-13 victory.

Moved to opening day of the WIAA season from its traditional late September date, Medford won its invitational for the first time since 2016 in what head coach Ashley Jochimsen-McCarron called just a fun day of volleyball.

Along with the close Medford loss, the Gilman Pirates lost a competitive match to its Eastern Cloverbelt Conference rival Columbus Catholic and finished 2-3 on the day, good for fourth place.

In what wound up being the championship match, Medford created just enough separation after leading 14-13 in set one. Kailyn Haenel, who had a great day filling in for the injured Taylor Klingbeil, won a point at the net and got a kill after a Kayla Baumgartner kill to help create a 19-15 lead. After the Orioles closed within 21-19, Shayla Radlinger took over, getting two kills and an ace down the stretch.

Medford shrunk a 21-16 game-two deficit to 22-20 but got no closer. But in game three, an 8-0 run got the Raiders out to a 10-2 lead. Stanley-Boyd got on a run to get within 11-7, but Baumgartner’s big swing produced a kill and Haenel hit a crossing shot for a 13-8 lead. Haenel again won a point at the net for set point, which the Raiders thought they had at 15-9 when an Oriole attack went out of bounds. But a touch was called, giving Stanley-Boyd the point and the Orioles got three more points, two on aces, to get within one. Medford finally ended it when Amelia Pernsteiner found a hole in the center of Stanley-Boyd’s defense from the right side.

Baumgartner had 10 kills and two solo blocks in the win, Haenel had three solo blocks and Radlinger had six kills. Finley Arndt had 10 assists, while Megan Schaefer had six. Rylee Hraby had five digs and two aces.

Baumgartner had 13 kills, while Haenel, Radlinger and Toryn Rau had nine each in Medford’s three-set win over Gilman. Haenel also had two solo blocks.

Medford got out to a 14-6 lead and controlled the first set until holding a little surge late by Gilman that got the Pirates within 25-20. The Raiders led game two 9-3 when an Addy Vick kill got Gilman going. Claire Drier fired off three straight aces to make it 9-8, then a Jaylyn Orth kill, a successful push from Vick and an Allison Olynick block tied it. Orth got a couple of kills and a block as Gilman surged ahead 21-16. Medford got within 22-21 following a kill and an ace from Baumgartner, but Gilman got three of the next four points, capped by an Abby Chaplinski kill to win 25-22.

Medford came out firing in game three, taking an 8-0 lead, highlighted by two Arndt aces. Gilman got no closer than six as Medford won it 15-8.

Against Columbus in round two, Medford trailed 10-7 early in game one but then got rolling in all phases of the game was fairly dominant the rest of the way in a 25-22, 25-15 sweep. Baumgartner had seven kills, while Klingbeil had two kills and two solo blocks before her injury. Schaefer and Rau had three kills each. Arndt had 11 assists and Schaefer had eight.

Medford opened the tournament with a 25-12, 25-18 win over Athens. Arndt had 14 assists, Radlinger had two kills and three aces. Baumgartner had seven kills, Klingbeil had two blocks and two kills, Rau had six kills and Schaefer had three kills and five assists. The Raiders swept Mellen in round four 2522, 25-15.

Gilman results

Gilman started with an intense match against nemesis Columbus Catholic. A 17-16 first set got away as the Dons got some late kills to win 25-21. The Pirates trailed 18-10 in game two before an Orth kill and Chaplinski ace turned the tide. Aubrey Mann got two kills, Kayleigh James served an ace and Olynick got a block to make it 21-19. Errors by the Dons and an Olynick tip tied it at 24-24. The Pirates got to set point at 26-25, but Columbus Catholic scored the next three points to escape with a 28-26 win.

The Pirates had no trouble with Mellen in round two, securing a 25-13, 25-10 sweep. After falling to Medford, a match in which the Pirates lost their tallest net presence, Orth, to an ankle injury, Stanley-Boyd took down Gilman 25-16, 25-20 in round four.

Gilman finished on a high note, outlasting Athens 27-25 in game one and then rolling 25-12 in game two.

“Overall, it was a good first day of volleyball for us,” Gilman head coach Janice Komanec said. “We are grateful to have been part of a strong tournament so early in the season. We were able to be competitive with each team there.

„One of our biggest focuses this season is consistency and decreasing errors and our scores directly reflected that,“ she added. We struggled the most against Stanley. We never really gained any strong momentum with them. We had too many errors, including eight missed serves, in that match alone. In the sets that we won, as well as those in which we earned better scores, we were more consistent and had better ball control.”