First GNC win of fall takes five sets to earn at Northland Pines

MEDFORD VOLLEYBALL

It hasn’t been the smoothest of first halves to the season for Medford’s volleyball team, but some hard work Tuesday was rewarded with the Raiders’ first Great Northern Conference win.

Medford won a five-set thriller in Northland Pines, rebounding from a game-one loss with two straight wins and then rallying from a late deficit to steal the decisive fifth game 15-13. Game two was pivotal as Medford avoided an 0-2 hole by pulling out a 29-27 win.

“We’ve got to work on finishing, but I’m proud of the resilience and mental toughness the girls displayed,” Medford head coach Ashley Jochimsen-McCarron said. “That is going to be important to maintain going into Saturday’s first conference tournament.” Medford is now 1-2 in the GNC heading into Saturday’s meet in Antigo, where the Raiders will play best-of-five matches against Tomahawk, Rhinelander and Antigo to round out their first tour through the league.

The Raiders are 7-14 overall as the season reaches its mid-point.

Northland Pines tied the match at 2-2 by taking the fourth game 25-19. Medford got the first two points of game five, but then fell into a funk and found itself down 9-4 and 12-7. Shayla Radlinger got a kill from the right side and then, with Rylee Hraby serving, the Raiders grabbed the momentum with a tough serve from Hraby that wasn’t returned, a Toryn Rau kill a Rachel Wesle kill and three kills from Kayla Baumgartner to reach match point at 14-13. The Raiders dug up a Pines block and were able to set up Baumgartner for the clinching kill.

“Game five started tough but Shayla made some nice big plays to keep us in the game,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “Our passers came through with some big digs so we could have effective attacks. We also got a couple of blocks at key times to keep momentum rolling. The girls worked hard, had resiliency in game five and came back from being down 7-12. Rylee Hraby came through and served us back to 13-12. We pushed through and won our first conference game.”

Pines took the opening set 25-20. Medford nearly let a 17-7 lead get away in game two. Pines overtook the Raiders at set point, winning a long rally to go up 2524, but a long serve by Pines tied it again and the Raiders outscored the Eagles 4-2 from there to even things up.

“In game one we worked on getting those first road trip jitters out of our system,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “We had some nice hits, but they just weren’t falling. In game two we had a nice lead but Northland Pines came back and shortened that lead. We ran out of subs, so Cami Rau showed leadership by stepping up, serving two nice balls, and passing from the back row.”

The momentum stayed with Medford in a 25-21 game-three win, but the Raiders couldn’t dig out of a slow start in the fourth.

“In game three, things seemed to be flowing, girls were playing hard,” Jochimsen- McCarron said. “Our setters worked hard on getting hitters the balls to put away for a point as well as making the smart set choice. In game four, we started slow and quiet. We did start waking up and closing the gap. Megan Schaefer came in and served us from 14-19. We did end up losing, but we had some momentum to carry us into set five.”

Offensively, Medford was balanced. Baumgartner had 13 kills, Toryn Rau had 12 from the middle and Cami Rau had nine. Radlinger chipped in with seven. Toryn Rau and Baumgartner also had two solo blocks each.

The Raiders missed just three out of 99 serves (97%) and had eight aces, including two each from Aliyah Pilgrim, Baumgartner and Finley Arndt. Pilgrim was 22 for 22, Hraby was 19 for 19 and Megan Schaefer was 14 for 14. Schaefer had 13 set assists, while Arndt had 12.

There was lots of digging to be done in game five. Hraby led Medford with 25 digs, Schaefer had nine, Arndt and Pilgram had eight each, Emily-Grace Rudolph had five and Rachel Wesle had four.

After the GNC tournament, the Raiders will fill next week with non-conference play. They’ll host Menomonie Monday and Wausau East Tuesday in 7 p.m. matches at Raider Hall. The Medford Invitational is Sept. 23 at Medford Area Middle School,

Two wins at Merrill

Things didn’t go as well as hoped Saturday at the Merrill Invitational, where the Raiders went 2-3 with both wins coming against Stanley-Boyd.

In pool play, the Raiders fell to Merrill 25-13, 25-18 and to Edgar 25-18, 25-11 but beat the Orioles in a close one 25-18, 13-25, 15-12.

Competing in the lower bracket to close the day, the Raiders lost a close one to Tomahawk 10-25, 25-20, 15-9 but swept Stanley-Boyd 25-13, 25-22.

Chippewa Falls went a perfect 5-0 to win the tournament, beating Edgar 2-0 in the championship.

Cami Rau