NO PLACE LIKE HOME

MEDFORD VOLLEYBALL

Raiders settle nerves, then sweep the Eagles

Some nerves were present with the Medford Raiders Tuesday in their first appearance of the season in front of the home crowd, but that crowd eventually provided the energy needed to push them to a 3-0 Great Northern Conference sweep over Northland Pines.

The Eagles, who also were Medford’s last home opponent in WIAA Division 2 tournament play last October, led for much of the first set and a good chunk of the third, but the Raiders surged past them with late runs in those sets and dominated the middle set to improve to 2-1 in league play and 7-8 overall.

“It was nice to be home,” Medford head coach Cheryl Schreiner said. “We’re on the road a lot this year. It’s really nice to get a home game finally. The girls feed off of that crowd and it’s so much fun.”

The Raiders again limited service errors to three and got nice offensive balance with five players having at least three kills. Not only did the offense come from the outside, but Delaney Hraby with four kills, Rachel Wesle with three kills and Cami Rau with seven total kills were able to get some big points from the middle to keep Pines’ defense guessing.

“The key to that is our passing,” Schreiner said. “You can’t get involved with your middles unless your passing is on. Rylee Hraby, Martha Miller and DeLana Radlinger just really did a nice job putting those passes up from the back row to be able to use those middles. Otherwise, if your setter gets pulled too far on top of your middle you can’t use them. They did a really nice job of putting that pass where it needed to be.

A 6-1 surge put the Eagles up 17-12 when Rau killed a free ball at the net to start turning the tide. Wesle served an ace, Hraby rolled a kill off the top of the net and Radlinger had an ace in an 8-2 run that put Medford back in front 20-19. The run continued with a couple of Eagle errors, a kill from Miller, a kill from Hraby off blocker Paris Croker and Miller’s kill to the back left corner.

Medford scored the final eight points of the opening set to win it 25-19.

“I thought the girls did a really good job of staying calm,” Schreiner said. “Even when they were down they didn’t show that they were giving up or they were panicked. They just played. I called that first timeout (down 14-11) and I’m like, ‘you guys are nervous aren’t you?’ And they were like, ‘yeah.’ I said ‘just play. Turn your brains off and just play.’ They settled in after that. It was nice to see.”

Medford jumped ahead 4-1 and 9-3 to start game two and then, behind a serving run from Megan Schaefer, widened the lead to 17-7. A Miller kill and a Rau push to the vacated middle of the Eagle defense made it 21-12. Two points later, Medford was up 11 and on the verge of a win when the Eagles got on a run to pull within 23-19 before Wesle’s deep roll found a hole and Toryn Rau swatted a free ball and got the clinching kill in another 25-19 win.

“The only time I could complain a little bit was at the end of the second set when we just kept dangling the carrot,” Schreiner said. “We need to put the nail in the coffin there. Don’t wait for them to make a mistake. You need to finish it here.”

Medford did finish things in game three, though Pines made things interesting early, pulling away from an 8-8 tie to lead 15-11 before a big block by Hraby got the energy back in the gym. Two hitting errors by Pines, a Paulson kill to the deep corner and a Hraby ace put the Raiders ahead 16-15. The Eagles scored two points to regain the lead, but that was their last. Wesle punched a shot through a block to tie the set at 17-17, Miller hit the sideline with a kill, Paulson’s push found a hole, Miller was able to tool a shot off a blocker, Paulson ripped off two nasty serves and Pines hit a ball out of bounds to suddenly put the Raiders up 23-17. Cami Rau and Miller eventually hit winners that closed out the match at 25-22.

Miller had seven kills, 17 digs and an ace in the win. Schaefer had two aces, 13 assists and five digs. Paulson had six assists to go with four well-timed kills at key times, 13 digs and an ace. Medford had six aces while serving at a 96% success rate (70 of 73).

Rylee Hraby had a team-high 19 digs, Radlinger had 14 digs and Toryn Rau had three.

With the loss Northland Pines fell to 0-2 in the GNC and 5-10 overall.

Medford is back in action Saturday at Northland Pines for the first of two GNC meets this fall. Action starts at 10 a.m. and the Raiders are scheduled for a full day with matches against Tomahawk, Rhinelander and then Antigo.

“That’s going to be a long day for us,” Schreiner said. “We’ll see. You have that potential to play 15 sets possibly. But it’ll be fun.”