Gold chances elude local teams in Medford Invite

MEDFORD INVITATIONAL

The Medford Raiders and Gilman Pirates met in one of the four volleyball matches to go the distance in Saturday’s nine-team Medford Invitational, but both teams would’ve preferred if that match would’ve taken place in the Gold Bracket, rather than the Silver Bracket of the placement rounds.

Gilman beat the Raiders in three sets and wound up claiming fifth place in the final standings while Medford fell to sixth after both teams also lost to Cadott in Silver Bracket play. The Raiders and Pirates wound up in the Silver Bracket after going 1-1 in their initial pools in the morning portion of the tournament.

The Gold Bracket featured pool winners Stanley-Boyd, Columbus Catholic and Amery. Columbus Catholic, the state’s second-ranked team in Division 4 behind Athens, took 2-0 wins over both teams to win Saturday’s championship trophy. Stanley-Boyd swept Amery to finish second.

For Medford head coach Cheryl Schreiner, 2-0 losses to Amery and Cadott stood out to her after the Raiders completed their matches for the day. The Raiders came out swinging in their opening match, taking care of Flambeau 25-16, 25-11, highlighted by nine kills and three aces from Delaney Hraby, four kills from Martha Miller and three from Cami Rau. Megan Schaefer had 10 assists and Allie Paulson had six. The Raiders knew their next match with Amery would determine who went to the Gold Bracket.

Game one was back and forth to start, reaching a 10-10 tie. That’s when the Warriors went on a little three-point spurt that put them ahead for good. The Raiders got within 13-12 and 22-21 but just couldn’t get all the way back in a 25-23 loss. Game two was similar most of the way. Amery turned a 7-6 deficit into a 13-8 lead. The Raiders fought their way back to 15-14 behind a cou- ple of Schaefer aces and a Hraby kill. But Amery got a sideout and the Warriors’ Lily Weisenbeck ripped off three straight service aces to help the Warriors open up a 20-14 lead and they held on 25-17.

“If we could’ve played against Amery like we did against Flambeau, we would’ve been in the Gold Bracket,” Schreiner said.

Schaefer had seven assists and two aces against the Warriors, while Hraby and Miller had four kills each.

Gilman played in two three-set matches. The first came in the Pirates’ opening round against Three Lakes. The Blue Jays got a close first set 25-22, but the Pirates pulled away from a tie score midway through game two and won 2517. The Pirates got out to a 5-1 lead in the third set and got three kills from Gracie Tallier midway through to answer points by Three Lakes to keep the lead. They eventually held off the Jays 15-12 to set up a match with Stanley-Boyd to determine who went to the Gold Bracket.

The Orioles came into the tournament ranked 10th in the state in Division 3 and are led by an outstanding outside hitter in senior Emily Brenner. But Gilman head coach Janice Komanec felt the Pirates should’ve gone into the match confident, knowing they had won matches against the Orioles in the summer. They hung with Stanley-Boyd in both sets but couldn’t make the plays they needed late in 25-21 and 25-22 losses.

Medford faced Cadott to start Silver Bracket play and the Hornets, who are coached by Schreiner’s daughter Lynn Schreiner, had the extra push at the end of each set to sweep the match. They