RIB LAKE VOLLEYBALL - Loss at Prentice eliminates Rib Lake from North title contention

RIB LAKE VOLLEYBALL

Rib Lake’s hopes of ending a championship drought in Marawood Conference volleyball ended for this year Tuesday in Prentice when the host Buccaneers earned a 3-1 win over the Redmen to clinch at least a share of this year’s North Division title.

Now 4-0 in the North, Prentice is assured of at least a piece of its first Marawood title since 2020. After stunning Phillips 3-1 on Tuesday, Abbotsford (3-1) is now the only team that can catch Prentice. Those teams meet Tuesday in Prentice on the last night of divisional play in the conference.

Rib Lake fell to 2-2 in the North after being unable to grab either of the first two closely-contested sets in Tuesday’s match. The Redmen stayed alive by controlling the third set but couldn’t carry that momentum into game four.

The Redmen now sit at 22-10 overall with, suddenly, just three regular-season matches remaining.

The Redmen had a tremendous night serving the volleyball with just three errors in 83 attempts (96.4%) and eight aces. Six players had at least nine digs defensively, led by Tahlia Scheithauer’s 24 and Madilyn Blomberg’s 16 and good passing led to Tessa Weik recording 14 kills, Blomberg getting nine and Madelyn Anderson and Megan Komarek each adding five.

But it wasn’t quite enough at Prentice, led by 29 kills from its All-State outside hitter Kali Heikkinen, did what it needed when it needed to stay undefeated in North play. The Buccaneers got their second win in three meetings this season with Rib Lake.

“The first two sets could have gone either way,” Rib Lake head coach Heather Weik said. “We had them on their heels in the third with everything going our way. We had several errors in the fourth and lost momentum of the game. Prentice made some nice adjustments and capitalized on them. They work well as a team.”

Set one was an uphill climb for the Redmen, who fell behind 7-2 at the start and 17-11 midway through. Blomberg powered an attack off a Prentice blocker to start a 7-1 run that pulled the Redmen even at 18-18. Tessa Weik had a couple of kills in the run and Camryn Glenzer added a block. But Prentice scored the next two points and the Redmen never got back to even, falling 25-22.

Game two was the one that truly got away. Weik came out firing with three early kills and Blomberg served an ace for an 8-2 Rib Lake lead. But Prentice just slowly chipped away at the lead as the set progressed. Heikkinen got into a groove with four kills during a mid-game stretch that got the Bucs within 18-17. Maddy Freeman surprised Rib Lake with a push that fell in the middle of the defense and tied the set at 21-21 and, after a Rib Lake timeout, her bump fell for the go-ahead point at 22-21. Abby Schuetz hit two winners and, after a Coralee Glenzer kill, Prentice middle Kayla Gillett pushed the clinching shot through Rib Lake’s block to seal the Bucs’ 25-22 win.

While that loss could’ve been deflating, Rib Lake instead answered with its best volleyball of the match in game three. Down 5-4, Addison Gumz dumped a winner onto Prentice’s side, Blomberg ripped off three straight hard-hit aces and Megan Komarek put away an overset by Prentice in a 7-0 run that made it 11-5. Camryn Glenzer, Blomberg and Weik had kills as the lead slowly crept toward double digits. Gumz set up Blomberg for a big kill that made it 22-12 and a Komarek kill ended the 25-18 win.

Rib Lake scored the first two points of game four, but then a handful of mistakes coupled with Heikkinen getting on another roll from the left side put the Redmen in an 11-4 hole. They got within 15-10 on an Anderson kill and 16-11 on a Coralee Glezner kill, but Prentice went on a 9-2 run from there to close out the match at 25-12.

Gumz had 22 assists in the loss and Weik had 13. Blomberg had four aces. Avery Niemi had 12 digs, Weik had 11 and Gumz and Coralee Glenzer had nine each.

For another year, 2009 will remain the last time a Rib Lake team won a Marawood North championship.

“As a team, we served well with only three errors the whole match,” Heather Weik said. “Tahlia had another great match with 24 digs and two aces. She worked hard picking up a lot of touches off blocks and cross hits. Tessa had 14 kills and 13 assists. Madi Blomberg ended with 9 kills and 16 digs. Megan had great touches on the ball helping our back row out. Avery Niemi did a nice job picking up the line hits in the back row and had 11 digs. Addy set well with 22 assists.”

Rib Lake wraps up conference play Tuesday when it hosts Chequamegon. Lakeland is in town for the regular-season home finale on Oct. 10. Both varsity matches start at 7 p.m.

Edgar 3, Rib Lake 1

While close matches seemed to go Rib Lake’s way earlier in the fall, one went against the Redmen Thursday in a hardfought four-set non-conference loss at Edgar.

The teams played evenly for much of the match with Rib Lake winning a marathon first set 30-28. Game two was 18-17 before Edgar went on a 7-2 surge to win it.

The key swing of the match, however, took place at the end of the third set. Down 18-11, Rib Lake stormed back, highlighted by a couple of Weik kills, an ace by Gumz and a beautiful off-speed push by Blomberg, and took a 22-20 lead. After an Edgar timeout, Weik’s attack attempt that would’ve put the Redmen up by three was an inch or two too long. Then Edgar libero Kaitlynn Hartnady dove to save what appeared to be a sure tip kill for Komarek and the Wildcats turned that into a tying tip kill from Emery Borchardt. Rib Lake took the lead back at 23-22 on a Coralee Glenzer kill, but Edgar scored the next three points to win the pivotal set 25-23.

Two Gumz aces gave Rib Lake a 12-11 lead in game four and a big block from Komarek put the Redmen in front 14-13, but the longest run of the match by either team, nine points, put Edgar in control and the Wildcats closed out the match 2516.

In the lengthy first set, Rib Lake grabbed an early 12-6 lead. Edgar scored the next five points and from there, it was back-and-forth all the way to the end. Rib Lake got a couple of four-point leads on a Gumz ace and then a Weik kill. Edgar reeled in the Redmen, finally tying it at 2121 on a Naquene Ellenbecker tip that ended a long rally. A Hartnady ace gave Edgar game point at 24-22. Rib Lake tied it on kills by Coralee Glenzer and Blomberg. Komarek’s tip kill on a free ball put the Redmen up 28-27, Ella Baumgartner tied it for Edgar with a kill, but a Weik kill and an Edgar error gave Rib Lake the opening win.

Both teams served well. Rib Lake had a 92.1% success rate with just seven errors in 89 serves. Edgar was a tick better at 93.1%. Gumz was 23 for 23 with four aces and Weik was 14 for 14. Edgar had 109 digs in the four-set match, with Hartnady having 37 on her own, while Rib Lake had 94 led by Tahlia Scheithauer’s 37. Weik had 17 and Coralee Glenzer had 14.

Weik was Rib Lake’s kill leader with 13. Komarek and Coralee Glenzer had seven each. Blomberg added five. Gumz set up the hitters with 17 assists, while Weik had 11.