Loggers roll, but Redmen do get first North win

RIB LAKE VOLLEYBALL

Every match continues to be a learning opportunity for the young Rib Lake volleyball squad. With the top four teams in the Marawood North all being among the area’s best, it’s not easy to find success while doing that learning.

The Lady Redmen made one nice run at Phillips in the first set Tuesday, but the visiting Loggers fought that off and then cruised behind some powerful hitting and serving that, at times, gave Rib Lake fits in a 3-0 sweep.

While the Loggers’ roster features just three seniors, they return a handful of players from last year’s conference championship team. One of them, 2021 All-Marawood North pick Elsa Schluter, was a force at the net Rib Lake couldn’t consistently contain as she racked up 16 kills and Kendall Weik was another force both at the net and at the serving line. She finished with six aces as the Loggers improved to 2-1 in North play and 13-4 overall.

Weik’s cousin, Rib Lake freshman Tessa Weik, led her team with five kills and the team had just two serving errors in the match, which was one positive sign to come out of the loss.

“Again I feel like we played hard continuously and to the final point,” Rib Lake head coach Heather Weik said. “I never want to blame our youth, but the speed of the game can get to us. We definitely can credit Phillips with some great serving that we struggled with getting an offense going. Turning their hits into ours was a goal we had and need to continue to work toward.”

Rib Lake fell to 1-2 in North standings and 7-13 overall.

Rib Lake scored the first two points in the opening set, but then gave up the next seven and trailed the rest of the way. The Redmen pulled within 7-5 on a Camryn Glenzer ace, but Phillips went on a 9-1 run that included three kills from Schluter to go up 16-6.

The Redmen responded with their best run of the match, taking advantage of some Logger errors and getting a couple of kills from Weik to pull within 17-16. Kendall Weik ended the run by powering an attack off Rib Lake’s attempted block. She hit three more winners and senior Solita Kaster added a kill as Phillips closed out the game at 25-19 with an 8-3 surge.

Kamryn Annala’s kill gave Rib Lake the first point of the second set, but that lead vanished immediately. Annala had another nice kill to make it 7-3, but Phillips scored the next five to go up 12-3. Jennifer Pichea got a block kill against Schluter and Tessa Weik hit two winners to keep Rib Lake within 13-6 and Weik served a couple of aces to pull the Redmen within 17-11, but the other Weik got Phillips rolling again with a huge serving run that included four of her aces and closed out the Loggers’ 25-11 win.

Josie Scheithauer and Weik hit winners with push shots early in game three as Rib Lake tried to stay close at 10-5. Libero Tahlia Scheithauer was able to make a one-handed save that led to a hitting error by Schluter and the Loggers were unable to handle a tough serve by Glenzer to keep it close at 15-10. But again the Loggers grabbed control when they needed it. Schluter smacked down a couple of big kills and Brooke Eckert added one as the lead grew to 22-12. Kills by Eckert and Kaster finished things off at 25-16.

Scheithauer led Rib Lake’s back row with 13 digs.

Rib Lake will get back at it Tuesday when they host another of the North’s 2022 monsters, Abbotsford, at 7 p.m. The Falcons are just 1-2 in the North, but their losses include a fourset loss at Prentice, who is ranked sixth in this week’s Wisconsin Volleyball Coaches Association Division 4 poll and a five-set loss Tuesday to top-ranked Athens.

First North win

Rib Lake did get into the win column in Marawood North play on Thursday, sweeping visiting Chequamegon 3-0.

Coach Weik said the Screaming Eagles came into the match fired up and may have played their best volleyball of the season in the first set, pushing Rib Lake to the limit before the Redmen finally finished them off at 26-24.

In game two, Addison Gumz helped the Redmen break things open with a streak of 11 serves in a row. The Redmen took the set 25-14.

Rib Lake closed out the match by simply dominating the third set 25-5. Glenzer had a run of 12 serves in a row in that game.

Weik led Rib Lake with seven kills in the match.