MEDFORD VOLLEYBALL - GOT THE START THEY NEEDED
MEDFORD VOLLEYBALL
There were stretches of great volleyball and some that were shaky, but when it was all said and done the Medford Raiders were right where they needed to be Tuesday night sitting at 2-0 in the Great Northern Conference after the second of two league matches at Raider Hall.
Medford rode the roller coaster to a 3-1 win over Lakeland in Tuesday’s match, taking the first two sets and falling in set three. Just when it seemed like the match was headed to a fifth game with Lakeland leading 22-16, the Raiders suddenly ripped off nine straight points to steal the game 25-22 and drop Lakeland to 1-1 in GNC play.
Of course it’s very early, but Medford is in sole possession of first place going into a key early-season match at 1-0 Mosinee Tuesday. The Indians are the defending GNC champions.
“That’s what we needed,” Medford head coach Ashley Jochimsen-McCarron said. “We needed these two big early conference wins. I think Mosinee will be our next tough match. We’ll just need to slowly work through and slowly build up from there.”
Offensively, Medford got 19 kills from Kayla Baumgartner in Tuesday’s win and 10 more from Toryn Rau. Finley Arndt had 20 assists and Megan Schaefer had 11. Taylor Klingbeil had two solo blocks and eight total blocks from her middle position.
But Jochimsen-McCarron said libero Rylee Hraby was the glue that held it together. She had nine digs, four set assists and ripped off three straight aces to end the match.
“Rylee was a rock star tonight,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “She held it together, she worked hard. She always does. She’s definitely playing strong. I was thankful she was there at the line to serve it out.”
Rau had the hot hand early, putting down three early kills while Arndt added her only ace of the match. A kill from Klingbeil, who had five in the match, a tip kill on the sideline from Schaefer and a Klingbeil block put Medford up 10-3 quickly in the first set. That lead grew to 13-4 following a tip kill from Baumgartner.
The momentum slowly swung toward Lakeland, who clawed its way back to a 17-17 tie after a couple of Taylah Bauman aces. Kills by Rau and Sophie Steinman got Medford back on track and the Raiders took set one 25-20.
Shayla Radlinger’s kill gave Medford a 16-15 lead midway through game two. Rau got a kill and Steinman tapped a T-Bird overpass for an easy kill for an 18-16 lead. Arndt then set up Baumgartner for two booming kills for a 22-17 lead that turned into a 25-22 set win.
Lakeland, though, found momentum quickly in set three, building a 7-1 lead behind a serving run from Karlin Williams. Schaefer served Medford back into a 9-9 tie. The run included a kill and a block kill from Klingbeil. But when Williams came back around to serve again, she led Lakeland on another run that put the TBirds up 20-14. They didn’t lose that lead, taking the set 25-20.
“Our passing struggled a little more tonight,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “They had some unpredictable hits that were a little bit tricky. But to overcome that and just push through was good.”
Radlinger’s block on Stina Peterson put Medford up 10-6 in game four, but a few shots sailed just long, Lakeland middle Ava Evenhouse got rolling thanks some quick sets and Peterson rifled off a couple of aces. Bryn Warchol and Kieran Petrie added aces to help Lakeland get to its 22-16 lead, but Klingbeil’s block on Evenhouse stopped the bleeding.
“They’re tall. They have a very big front row,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “Sometimes our middles couldn’t go the way they wanted. To make those adjustments, Taylor and Shayla both had some big kills. That was nice.”
Rau got a resounding block kill on Lakeland’s Marlee Strasburg that forced the T-Birds to call a timeout at 22-19. But Rau found the back corner for a kill, a double-hit violation and an error tied it and then Hraby fired off her string of aces to end it.
Radlinger added two kills and was involved in four total blocks. Laney Hraby and Arndt both had eight digs and Aliyah Pilgrim had five.
Before Medford and Mosinee meet Tuesday, the Raiders will play in the eightteam Merrill Invitational Saturday, opening in a pool that includes Chippewa Falls, Newman Catholic and Stanley-Boyd. After the Mosinee match, Medford will play a nonconference match at Bloomer Sept. 19.
Medford 3, Antigo 2
Medford kicked off GNC play and broke in new-look Raider Hall in style Thursday, rallying from a 2-0 deficit to knock off Antigo in five sets.
While the gym was far from full, the energy level was high with two involved student sections, big momentum swings and, at the end, the home team getting it done in the last three sets with its best volleyball of the young season.
“That was so fun,” Arndt said. “We told ourselves we were going to be loud the whole time and obviously 26 kills helped with that.”
The 26 kills Arndt referred to came from Baumgartner. When the season started, the Raiders talked about the need to feed their top offensive threat this season and she showed why. The 26 kills came on 58 attacks with just five errors for an outstanding .362 hitting percentage. There were times where the students’ chant of “you can’t stop her” certainly weren’t wrong.
“I just found the open court and swung as hard as I could,” Baumgartner said.
She wasn’t the only one putting the ball down. Radlinger had 15 kill and just two errors in 27 attacks and Rau hit double digits with 10 kills, some of which were powerful in their own right.
Arndt had 30 assists and Schaefer had 17, which all started with solid passing.
“It was all around,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “The passers passed the ball phenomenally, the setters set a great ball and the hitters did their job.”
In the back row, Rylee Hraby had 21 digs and chipped in with three assists. Pilgrim had 12 digs. She and Arndt served two aces apiece.
“Our passers were doing amazing with all of the digs,” Arndt said. “That just sets up everyone’s offense.”
“I think one of the past passing nights I’ve seen,” Baumgartner said.
From the Raiders’ point of view, the match probably didn’t need to go the distance, but Antigo, coming off a strong performance at the two-day Friendship Invitational at Wisconsin Dells Aug. 30-31, made the plays in the back ends of each of the first two sets to win them 25-20 and 25-22. Medford led game two 17-11 after Pilgrim made a tough save and Hraby set up Baumgartner for a kill and Sophia Steinman followed that with a kill.
The momentum finally stayed with Medford when the Raiders grabbed it to start game three. With Baumgartner serving, they went on a big run to open up a 19-6 lead. The run included a couple of aces and Klingbeil had back-to-back points from the middle with a corner kill and a tip of a free ball. Medford won the set 25-15.
“We got way more aggressive with the hitting and stopped tipping,” Baumgartner said of the momentum switch. “We just kept hitting hard and being aggressive.”
Jochimsen-McCarron said one of the keys was slowing down Antigo’s rightside setter Tristin Arlen, who led the Red Robins in assists and kills for much of the match.
“She’s their difference maker,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “To be able to shut her down really helped us. At one point after game two I was like, ‘guys when they’re setter is leading them in kills, we have to get her out of system, we have to get her working so that we can score points.’ When she gets in that front row, she’s a threat.”
The Raiders took a 13-7 lead in game four. Antigo got back within 15-13, but Radlinger sparked another run with three winners that made it 20-13. Hraby set up Baumgartner for a kill that made it 24-16 before the Raiders finally closed it out at 25-21.
Arndt served Medford to a 7-1 lead in game five. Pilgrim’s bump found the floor on Antigo’s side and that was followed by Baumgartner pounding two attacks off attempted blocks to make it 11-5. The lead got to 14-8 on a Rau kill when Antigo made one last push, getting to 14-13 before a good rally ended with Amelia Pernsteiner getting the final kill, deflecting her shot off a blocker.
“To do this here tonight was huge,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “This was a big win.”
