A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
MEDFORD VOLLEYBALL
Raiders improve but fall short against Mosinee
Losing the first two duals at home obviously isn’t the way the Medford Raiders wanted to start the Great Northern Conference volleyball season, but a much more complete effort in the second of those losses Tuesday was encouraging.
The Raiders fell 3-1 to Mosinee in sauna-like conditions inside Raider Hall, though the atmosphere was electric for an early-season match, fueled by the dueling student sections.
Medford had a golden opportunity to take game one but let it slip away. The Raiders came back to get game two and were right there in game four before a late surge allowed Mosinee to close out the match.
“It’s there, the energy is there,” Medford head coach Ashley Jochimsen-Mc-Carron said after the loss. “It’s all just coming together.”
One of the biggest things the coaching staff liked was the stretches of aggressive offense. The Raiders were able to put down 27 kills, served up seven aces and got at least one kill from seven different players.
“It’s there,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “Good things happen when we hit the ball. Kayla Baumgartner came hard. Kayla was ready. She was a gamer. Those right sides are working hard. There’s three of them and they’re all working. Shayla Radlinger worked hard tonight.”
Baumgartner’s nine kills led Medford, while Radlinger had eight. Cami Rau had four and Toryn Rau had three. Baumgartner added three solo blocks and two block assists. Radlinger had two block assists and Toryn Rau had a solo block.
Megan Schaefer had 10 set assists, while Finley Arndt had six to go with two big aces midway through game four.
“Finley Arndt was definitely a difference maker out there,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “She seemed to have a little more confidence. She went for it hard.”
Toryn Rau started the match with a bang, pounding a kill off a Schaefer assist, then she got a block and Cami Rau added a kill for a 3-0 lead. Aliyah Pilgrim fired off a series of tough serves that helped Medford get out to an 8-3 lead, before Mosinee got on a run to tie it and then the teams went back and forth. Down 19-16, Medford went on a run fueled by some Mosinee miscues and a Cami Rau kill to go up 22-20. But the Indians scored the next four, Baumgartner got a deep corner push to fall, but Mosinee secured the last point in a 25-23 win.
The Raiders fell behind 5-1 in game two, but quickly got back in it behind a serving run by Toryn Rau that included an ace and put Medford up 7-5. Mosinee went on a 4-0 spurt, but the Raiders answered with two winners from Baumgartner and a successful back-row attack from Pilgrim to go up 12-10. Amelia Pernsteiner got a kill and Toryn Rau beat Mosinee’s middle for a tip in the middle for a 15-13 lead. Baumgartner’s big block on Mosinee’s Maggie Woller made it 17-14, Radlinger’s middle kill off a free ball gave Medford a 21-15 edge and the Raiders eventually finished off a 2520 win.
Game three was tied at 11-11 when Medford went into its biggest funk of the match, allowing the Indians to go on a 14-4 tear to win the set 25-15. The Raiders quickly fell behind 7-2 in game four but dug their way out and got within 12-11 after Arndt’s two aces to deep left corner of Mosinee’s defense.
Unfortunately for Medford, a Tristan Wicklund kill stopped Medford’s momentum and the Raiders just never got over the hump, falling 25-17.
Bridget Frye led Mosinee with eight kills, Wicklund had seven and Woller and Bella Kyhos had five each. Wicklund served seven aces. Rylee Hraby led Medford with 12 digs, while Pilgrim and Arndt had eight apiece.
“I asked the girls if they were content winning one game and they said no,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “It’s there. We’ll find it. They’ll keep pushing, they’ll persevere. They have the energy.”
Medford, now 4-11 overall, will see good competition at Saturday’s Merrill Invitational, before visiting Northland Pines for a GNC match Tuesday at 7 p.m. The GNC weekend event of the season follows Sept. 16 at Antigo, where Medford will face Tomahawk, Rhinelander and Antigo.
Lakeland 3, Medford 0
In the home and GNC opener Thursday, the Raiders had some good moments but weren’t able to sustain enough consistently strong play and were swept by the Lakeland Thunderbirds.
Lakeland pulled away from an 11-11 to take game one 25-18, took the lead early and never looked back for a 25-14 win in the second set and used a mid-game surge again to take the lead for good to clinch it 25-22.
“It’s there,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “We just need that high energy all the time.”
The first set went back and forth early. Cami Rau’s winner into a Lakeland block tied it at 10-10 when the T-Birds took off with a 12-3 surge that started with a Meela Kahn block and included kills from Lakeland’s All-GNC outside hitter Pfannerstill, Cale Quade and Ava Evenhouse.
Medford took a quick 3-1 lead in the second set, only to see Lakeland go on another 12-3 run to take a 13-6 lead, following two Pfannerstill aces. Cami Rau’s kill made it 14-8 and, later, kills by Taylor Klingbeil and Radlinger helped make it 19-14, but Medford got no closer.
A 4-0 run, sparked by a Toryn Rau block kill, gave Medford a 6-3 lead in the third set. Lakeland tied it at 7-7. Radlinger’s kill sparked another 4-0 Medford run that ended with Rachel Wesle and Radlinger teaming up for a block kill to make it 11-7.
Pfannerstill got a kill and two aces to spark a 6-0 Lakeland run that turned the set around. The Raiders tied it again at 13-13, but the T-Birds surged from there to a 20-14 lead. The Raiders hung around, getting a tip from Cami Rau, a big kill from Baumgartner and Radlinger’s tap that found a hole to make it 23-21 and then a double hit violation on Lakeland cut the lead to one, but two Raider errors allowed Lakeland to get out with the
sweep.
Baumgartner had six kills and two block assists for the Raiders. Cami Rau had four kills, Radlinger had three and Pilgrim, Schaefer and Wesle had two apiece. Toryn Rau had one solo block and two assists.
Schaefer had six set assists, while Arndt added five. Pilgrim had Medford’s only ace. The Raiders were 45 of 49 in serving. Pilgrim had 12 digs, Rylee Hraby had seven and Toryn Rau had five.
“The first game jitters are out,” Jochimsen- McCarron said. “Only one way to go and that’s up.”
Medford’s Kayla Baumgartner tries to power a spike through the blocking wall put up by Lakeland’s Ava Evenhouse (15) and Meela Khan during the second set of the T-Birds’ 3-0 sweep over the Raiders Thursday. Medford’s Aliyah Pilgrim is in the background, waiting for a potential deflection.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
