Rib Lake gets into top bracket at Marathon, goes 1-2 at Loyal

RIB LAKE VOLLEYBALL

A 2-3 outing on Saturday resulted in a fourth-place finish for Rib Lake’s volleyball team at the eight-team Marathon Invitational.

By going 2-1 in pool play, the Redmen got to the upper bracket and earned a chance to play for the championship. But they ended the day with losses to Stratford and Fall Creek. Fall Creek actually accounted for two of Rib Lake’s defeats during the day.

This marked the first time since 2018 that Rib Lake was part of the upper bracket in the annual tournament.

Rib Lake started the tournament with an impressive sweep of the host Red Raiders, beating them 25-17, 25-19. The Redmen put down 20 kills and had just nine errors in 58 attacks. The offense was spread out with Tessa Weik getting five kills, Madilyn Blomberg putting down four and Jennie Pichea, Coralee Glenzer and Camryn Glenzer getting three each. Weik led the team with nine assists, while Josie Scheithauer had three. Blomberg had three of Rib Lake’s five service aces.

Tahlia Scheithauer had 12 digs, Coralee Glenzer had nine and Josie Scheithauer and Weik had six apiece.

The scores were the exact opposite in round two against Fall Creek as the Crickets swept the match 25-17, 25-19. The Redmen only had two more hitting errors than they did against Marathon with 11, but Fall Creek was better at digging up those attacks. Camryn Glenzer’s five kills led Rib Lake, while Weik had five assists. Rib Lake served at a 94.6% success rate (35 of 37) with Josie Scheithauer getting the only ace. Tahlia Scheithauer and Camryn Glenzer had seven digs each and Addison Gumz added six.

A 25-18, 25-15 sweep over Thorp qualified Rib Lake for the championship pool. The offense against the Cardinals was again balanced as Weik and Josie Scheithauer had four kills apiece, Pichea had three and five others had at least one. Weik had eight assists and Gumz added three. A serve percentage of 93.9% included seven aces, including two each from Blomberg and Weik.

Defensively, Tahlia Scheithauer had a big match with 15 digs, while Camryn Glenzer had seven.

In the semifinal round, Rib Lake was paired up with the other pool champion, Stratford, and was handed 25-15, 25-19 loss. Tahlia Scheithauer had 11 digs, while Weik and Camryn Glenzer had five digs apiece. The offense just couldn’t really get into a groove, recording just nine kills, three of which came from Weik, who also had four assists. Rib Lake uncharacteristically also had six service errors, though Blomberg had two aces.

Phillips edged Fall Creek 2-1 in the other semifinal, leading to a rematch between the Redmen and Crickets for third place. Fall Creek won the first set 25-19, but Rib Lake bounced back and took the second set 25-15. Fall Creek took the third set 15-10 to win the match. The Redmen also lost Weik to a shoulder injury in the second set.

The Redmen regained some of their swagger at the net with a solid team attack percentage of .156 with 23 kills and just 13 errors in three sets. Pichea, Coralee Glenzer, Josie Scheithauer and Blomberg had four kills apiece. Gumz had three of the team’s five aces and she stepped into the leading setter role and finished with eight assists, while Weik and Blomberg had four each. Tahlia Scheithauer had 15 digs, while Camryn Glenzer had six. Josie Scheithauer had a block kill.

Stratford beat Phillips for the second time in the tournament to win the championship match.

Rib Lake was at the Owen-Withee Quad on Tuesday. Full details were not yet available at press time Wednesday.

The Lady Redmen begin competition in the Marawood North Tuesday with a tough home matchup with the Athens Blue Jays. The match starts at 7 p.m. Athens is the defending North Division champion and is coming off a 2022 WIAA Division 4 state appearance.

Edgar visits Rib Lake for non-confer- ence play on Sept. 7. The Wildcats are the defending champions in the Marawood South.

1-2 at Loyal

Rib Lake began the new season by collecting one win in three matches at the Aug. 22 Loyal Quad.

The win was a 25-22, 25-17 sweep of Osseo- Fairchild. Columbus Catholic again swept its way through the quad, including a 25-19, 25-14 win over the Lady Redmen.

Rib Lake and the host Greyhounds battled through a three-set match. Rib Lake took the first set 25-20, but Loyal came back with 25-18 and 25-17 wins to take the match and secure second place for the meet.

Tessa Weik and Jennie Pichea were Rib Lake’s kill leaders with 14 and 13 respectively. Weik added 23 assists and four service aces. Josie Scheithauer had 12 kills for the night.

Madilyn Blomberg had eight kills and three aces. Coralee Glenzer put down seven kills and Camryn Glenzer had five. Tahlia Scheithauer had 34 digs in the back row.

“It is so nice to see kills spread out amongst the team,” head coach Heather Weik said. “We had a lot of nice touches on the ball throughout the quad with eight total blocks. We had 15 total aces for the night as well. I looking forward to watching this team continue to grow this season.”