AIMING TO MAKE IT MEMORABLE
While the Medford Raiders took a giant leap forward during the 2024 volleyball season, they also feel like the year ended with some unfinished business.
With eight seniors and two key juniors returning and leading the way, the Raiders will have the opportunity to take things at least a little bit further in 2025.
The key accomplishment last fall was winning a share of the Great Northern Conference title. After an early-season loss to Mosinee, the Raiders rallied during the Oct. 12 conference tournament in Medford to beat the Indians in five games and eventually earned their title share with an 11-1 league mark. It was Medford’s first GNC title since 2016.
The Raiders also improved their win total from 2023 by 10 games, finishing 25-12 overall, their best mark since going 27-12 in 2018.
The one disappointment was how the season finished with a rough 3-0 sweep at the hands of Altoona in a WIAA Division 2 regional semifinal. Medford hasn’t played in a volleyball regional final since 2017 and hasn’t played in a sectional match since 2011.
“We’re excited,” senior libero Rylee Hraby said Tuesday after Medford went 3-1 at its own invitational at Raider Hall to start the season. “Obviously we have big goals because we have a really experienced team.”
“The girls want to go out with a bang and they have the potential,” third-year head coach Ashley Jochimsen-McCarron said. “It’s about taking control of what we can control. That’s the big thing. That’s our big focus this year, controlling what we can control and improving every day by 1%.”
Before hopefully reaching that end goal, the Raiders aim to make some memories along the way. They opened the season with their annual midnight practice on Monday, Aug. 18. Plans have been made to try to host an outdoor match with Great Northern Conference rival Rhinelander on Raider Field on Friday night, Sept. 19.
And, after Tuesday’s opening meet, the Raiders left at 1 a.m. on Wednesday for Florida, where they will play in the three-day Orlando Fall Classic, starting today, Thursday, and going through Saturday. The first two days includes pool play against teams from Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and Kentucky. Saturday will feature bracket crossover matches to determine final placement in a 14-team grouping.
“It will be a good team bonding experience,” senior setter Finley Arndt said.
“The competition should be really good,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “Hopefully it is. Just the experience and the team bonding will be fun.”
The Raiders expect their team chemistry to be strong. It’s a group that has played together for some time and, the seniors said, enjoys doing so.
“We’ve been playing together so we understand each other,” Aliyah Pilgrim said. “We have trust in each other that maybe we haven’t had in the past.”
“Honestly friendship (is a strength),” Arndt said. “I feel like we’re all really close and we like to hang out with each other, so going to practice isn’t hard.”
Another team strength is also fairly obvious.
“We do have a lot of height compared to some years,” Hraby said. “We have a big front row.”
Medford hopes to make the most of their imposing front line, which includes junior Kayla Baumgartner on the outside and junior Taylor Klingbeil in the middle. Baumgartner is the reigning GNC Co-Player of the Year, along with Mosinee’s Bridget Frye, who also returns. Baumgartner was second in the GNC last year, averaging 3.7 kills per set and ranked third with a .280 attack percentage. Klingbeil, who rode a strong second half of the season to an honorable mention award, ranked fourth with a .260 attack percentage. Add in seniors Sophia Steinman and Kailyn Haenel and the Raiders have some solid options for scoring both as hitters and blockers.
Junior Avery Losiewicz may not have the same kind of height, but she has pushed her way into some varsity time. She started the season Tuesday with 12 total kills in Medford’s four matches.
“Avery can jump and she’s quick,” Jochimsen-McCarron said.
“It’s really fun knowing when I have a good pass that I can go anywhere and we have a really good chance of getting a kill,” Arndt said. “Even when we’re out of system I have these guys in the back row who can put it away. There are more options behind me.”
The Raiders are starting out the season using a 5-1 offensive scheme that puts Arndt as the full-time setter. She earned All-GNC honorable mention honors last fall, averaging 4.8 assists per set in GNC play while sharing setting duties with the now departed Megan Schaefer in a 6-2 attack.
Defensively, Hraby returns to the libero she’s held the past three years. She earned second-team All-GNC honors last fall. Her twin sister Laney Hraby and Pilgrim both give Medford strong serving and passing out of the back row. Seniors Hannah Egle and Ruthie Steinman filled serving roles as well in Tuesday’s tournament. Egle went 16 for 16 and Steinman had two aces in 17 attempts.
“I think we’re a really scrappy team and just really good at communicating with each other as passers,” Rylee Hraby said. “I know we can still improve.”
“They’re scrappy, they can pick up anything and they’re talking,” Jochimsen-McCarron said of the back row. “They’re talking a lot more this year than they have been, which is great. They’re communicating what the hit is, what do you see, what’s happening.”
Junior Bridget Wesle completes this year’s varsity roster. She will likely float between the top team and the JV squad. “With all of those seniors I expect they’ll all be playing at some point,” Jochimsen McCarron said. “All have significant roles. Ruthie and Hannah were big coming off the bench (Tuesday) and getting aces and keeping the rallies going. That was nice.” This year’s schedule includes a return to the Marshfield Invitational on Sept. 6, a tournament Medford once played in annually but hasn’t attended since 2016. The Raiders will return to the Eau Claire Memorial Invitational, where they played some good ball that helped spark last year’s late-season success. Waupaca and D.C. Everest are new non-conference opponents on the schedule.
As for the GNC, Merrill joins the league and should add to what the players and coaches believe will be a competitive race to the title. With Merrill’s addition, the conference format changes this year. The teams will play a single round-robin dualmeet schedule with those meets taking place on Tuesday nights, though the opening night of GNC play is next Thursday. Medford hosts Antigo in its opener.
Then there is just one GNC tournament this fall, set for Oct. 11 at Northland Pines, which will have a bracketed format.
Mosinee would appear to be the toughest challenge again inside the conference, bringing several key players back and adding an imposing freshman in Pacyn Stoffel. Though Northland Pines finished last in the conference, the Eagles impressed Medford’s players and coaches this summer. Teams like Antigo, Tomahawk and Lakeland are rarely easy to beat.
“There are a lot of good conference teams this year,” Rylee Hraby said.
“Nothing will be a cakewalk,” Pilgrim said.
Six of the conference’s eight teams also appear in Medford’s half of the WIAA Division 2 sectional half-bracket. The half-bracket also has a southern flavor as it includes Mauston, Reedsburg and Wisconsin Dells.
“I think Northland Pines is going to be sneaky good, which is great for that program,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “I think others will have good things. Adding Merrill will bring some great competition. Those are the teams we’re also going to see in our bracket because we’re back on the other side now for regionals. Sometimes what you know is better than what you don’t know. We’ll take it all in stride and keep working hard.”
“We’d like to at least make it out of regionals this year,” Pilgrim said. “It’s about just having fun in the moment and seeing where we can go.”
