WIAA DIV. 2 VOLLEYBALL - Medford starts volleyball postseason with a quick 3-0 sweep

WIAA DIV. 2 VOLLEYBALL

Given a week to savor their Great Northern Conference championship and get past some illnesses that hit last week, the Medford Raiders started the second season Tuesday with a quick 3-0 sweep of 11th-seeded Ashland in a WIAA Division 2 regional quarterfinal.

The match was played at Medford Area Elementary School. The sixth-seeded Raiders improved to 25-11 while quickly taking care of the Oredockers 25-12, 25-12, 25-13.

Ashland (2-26) came into the match short-handed, also hit with illness that forced some of its top players to stay home.

“It’s their worst nightmare,” Medford head coach Ashley Jochimsen-McCarron said.

Medford got out to a quick 4-1 lead in the first set, but then wobbled for a stretch and fell behind 9-8. Ashland junior Ava Moravchik was responsible for much of that, picking up two block kills against Medford’s top offensive threat, Kayla Baumgartner, and adding her own kill.

“They had that middle who was fabulous,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “She’s really good. It was nice to play a little defense on her and build a little resilience. She had some great blocks.”

A Taylor Klingbeil kill and two aces from Baumgarter swung the momentum quickly back to Medford’s side. Toryn Rau had two kills, Amelia Pernsteiner had one, Shayla Radlinger tipped one through an attempted double block and Finley Arndt served an ace for an 18-11 lead. Sophia Steinman’s roll and two more kills from Rau capped the 17-3 run to end the set.

Rau and Baumgartner would go on to lead Medford with eight kills apiece.

“Toryn had a great night tonight,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “There were lots of open areas to finish those plays, which was nice. Our serving was good again.

We have to keep pushing. We know what (the tournament) is going to bring. We know we have to take control.”

The Raiders took immediate control of game two, jumping ahead 15-2. Ashland went on a little 4-0 run to get within 15-6 and a 4-0 spurt to pull within 20-12, but two good rallies sandwiched around an Arndt ace were ended with kills from Rau and Radlinger and Radlinger put down the final point of the set on a free ball at the net.

A Laura Lund ace brought Ashland within 6-5 early in set three, but two Megan Schaefer aces got Medford rolling again. The Raiders finished the match behind a serving run by Aliyah Pilgrim for the last handful of points.

Klingbeil had six kills and Radlinger had five. Both had four total blocks. Baumgartner had two.

Arndt had 18 assists, while Schaefer had nine. Rylee Hraby had 10 digs, while Baumgartner had four. Medford was 61 of 67 in serving (91%) with 11 aces, including three each from Baumgartner and Arndt and two apiece from Pilgrim and Schaefer.

The win sends Medford to a regional semifinal match tonight, Thursday, at third-seeded Altoona. The Railroaders were 23-13 in the regular season, including a 5-2 mark in the Middle Border Conference and a 17-25, 25-19, 15-13 win over Medford in the Oct. 5 Eau Claire Memorial tournament. The Railroaders split best-of-three matches with GNC cochampion Mosinee early in the year.

Tonight’s winner will get either seventh-seeded Baldwin-Woodville or second-seeded St. Croix Central in the regional final Saturday night with the higher seed hosting. St. Croix Central is 24-10 and went 6-1 in the Middle Border, while Baldwin-Woodville is 22-16 after a first-round win Tuesday over Somerset. The Blackhawks were 3-4 in the Middle Border.

At the Menomonie Sprawl back on Aug. 30-31, Medford lost to St. Croix Central 20 and Baldwin-Woodville 2-1.

Jochimsen-McCarron said she was hoping the regional seeding would work out where the Raiders would get rematches with these teams.

“This was a nice game to go into Thursday,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “We know what Thursday is going to bring. We played them close. We know what they have. Now it’s just execute and take control.

“If we had to go anywhere, this is where I wanted to be because we’ve played Altoona and we played St. Croix Central. We know St. Croix Central is beatable.”

The winner of Saturday’s regional final will then play in a sectional semifinal match Thursday, Oct. 31. Osceola is the one-seed and faces eighth-seeded Ellsworth in one regional semifinal on the other side of the half-sectional Thursday. Fifth-seeded Rice Lake is at fourth-seeded St. Croix Falls in the other semifinal.

Libero Rylee Hraby, who led Medford with 10 digs, bumps up a pass during game three of Tuesday’s win over Ashland.