Medford looks to piece together another strong season 
by Matt Frey
The Star News
August 27, 2009 —  With the annual season-opening trip to the UW-Stout Sprawl Invitational fast approaching, the Medford volleyball team feels it has some pretty good pieces to work with in 2009.
How those pieces will all fit together, though, is still undetermined.
The players are the first to admit they haven’t quite found a comfort zone through the first week and a half of practice. Head coach Dave Vaara said he sees moments of brilliance in those practice and then moments that are far from brilliant.
But they all believe it’s a matter of when, and not if, those pieces will come together and form a pretty strong volleyball team.
“We still have some big goals after getting to the sectional final last year,” senior Jessica Holbach said.
The Raiders will find out exactly where they are in the first two weeks of the regular season. Their season opens with the Sprawl Friday and Saturday, and they’ll see good competition at the Marshfield Invitational next Saturday. In between, trips to Chippewa Falls Tuesday and Lakeland Thursday won’t be easy either.
“We’re excited to see good competition,” senior Olivia Smola said of the early schedule.
“I’d rather lose playing against good competition right now than the other way around,” senior Corie Boxrucker said.
In pool play Friday at Stout, Medford will see Ripon, Wausau West, River Valley, Turtle Lake and Rice Lake, the team that beat Medford last November 1 in Raider Hall to earn the berth in the WIAA Division 2 state tournament.
“We play Rice Lake right away in the tournament, and that’s going to be big,” senior Brooke Walsh said. “That will be important for seeding later.”
The Raiders lost five players to graduation, all of whom played fairly significant roles on a team that went 10-2 in its first year of Great Northern Conference play, 33-10 overall and was a win short of going to state. But, Medford brings back six seniors who, for the most part, have significant varsity experience. The team hopes four juniors and a sophomore who will start the year with the top squad will help fill in the holes as well.
The senior class includes Smola, a first-team All-GNC choice in 2008 as an outside hitter, and Holbach, a second-team pick in the middle. Smola also earned honorable mention all-state honors. Megan Wibben is the leader of the back row. Boxrucker joins junior Taylor Strama as the team’s primary setters. Corissa Quednow and Walsh will be important pieces to the puzzle from the outside.
Smola’s 379 overall kills was easily the team’s best in 2008 and her 129 kills in GNC play ranked third in the league. Holbach’s 46 block kills led the GNC and her 178 overall ranked third on the team behind Smola and the now-departed Kelsey Yaron.
Medford’s rivals all know those two represent the team’s strength.
“The biggest thing is going to be the passing,” Vaara said. “We know Olivia and Jessica are going to hit. We think Corie and Taylor are going to be fine setting. We have to get the ball to the setters.”
Vaara and the seniors agreed that the passing is the area in need of the most improvement right now. Improvement should come as the girls spend more time together on the court.
“This group has never played together,” Walsh said. “We’ve been switching rotations up a lot in practice.”
Vaara said he’s been playing with several different rotations early on. His goal is to try to keep one of his two heavy hitters in the front row as much as possible. But it’s going to be important for the rest of the offensive players like Quednow, Walsh and sophomore Taylor Kuhn to consistently produce too. Vaara and his seniors both said Kuhn, who is relatively new to the sport, could be one of this team’s pleasant surprises.
The rest of the juniors vying for playing time include Michelle Brushaber, Brittany Henderson and Sasha Jascor. There is room on the roster for additional players if someone emerges from the JV level.
The seniors all agreed that goal number-one for the season is to win the Great Northern Conference title. The Raiders were second a year ago behind 12-0 Merrill. The Blue Jays bring back two All-GNC selections, including Player of the Year Kayla Duesing, and won’t go down easily. Vaara also is wary of Tomahawk, who brings back unanimous All-GNC pick Kaitlin Doughty and will be helped by junior Sydney Lakatos, a transfer from Menomonie who earned honorable mention in the primarily Division 1 Big Rivers Conference last fall. Antigo, Lakeland and Mosinee all figure to put up good fights during the season too.
The post-season brings a new twist. The WIAA moved Medford to a new six-team regional that includes Rice Lake and Altoona. A week before getting swept by Rice Lake, Medford rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat Altoona 3-2 in a memorable regional final at Mosinee. This year’s regional final is in Rice Lake.
“I want that same feeling again at some point,” Holbach said of that exciting match with Altoona.
“All of our games need to be like that,” Boxrucker said. “We have to bring that excitement in every game.”
“The regional is going to be tough,” Vaara understated.
With the new sectional bracket, Medford wouldn’t see another GNC Division 2 rival until the sectional final. The Raiders would love nothing more than to get another shot to play in that match on Saturday, Oct. 31. It’s up to them to put the pieces of the puzzle together between now and then.
“I still think it was awesome that we got to play in the sectional final,” Quednow said. “It would’ve been tough to see two different teams playing here in our gym that night. Even though we lost, I think it was fun to get that far.”
2009 Medford varsity volleyball schedule

Aug. 28-29 at UW-Stout Sprawl, TBA Oct. 1 at Menomonie, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 1 at Chippewa Falls, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 8 NEWMAN CATHOLIC, 7 p.m.
Sept. 3 at Lakeland, 7 p.m. Oct. 13 MERRILL, 7 p.m.
Sept. 5 at Marshfield Invite, 9 a.m. Oct. 17 GNC #2 at Lakeland, 9 a.m.
Sept. 8 TOMAHAWK, 7 p.m. Oct. 20 WIAA regional, 7 p.m.
Sept. 10 E.C. MEMORIAL, 7 p.m. Oct. 23 WIAA reg. semifinal, 7 p.m.
Sept. 15 at Northland Pines, 7 p.m. Oct. 24 Regional final at Rice Lake, 7 p.m.
Sept. 19 GNC #1 at Tomahawk, 9 a.m. Oct. 29 Sectional at Bald.-Wood., 7 p.m.
Sept. 22 MOSINEE, 7 p.m. Oct. 31 Sectional final at Altoona, 7 p.m.
Sept. 26 MEDFORD INVITE, 10:30 a.m. Nov. 6-7 WIAA state at Green Bay, TBA
Sept. 29 at Antigo, 7 p.m.

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