A different season brings new-look All-Marawood format

ALL-MARAWOOD VOLLEYBALL

A different kind of season brings a different look to the All-Marawood Conference volleyball awards in 2020, which include three award winners from Rib Lake.

With the conference combining its schedule this fall into one league-wide round-robin, the conference created one all-conference list, rather than the usual split between North and South divisions. The conference also added a third-team level to this year’s list of winners.

That third team includes Rib Lake junior middle Tia Bube. The 22-member honorable mention list includes the team’s only senior, Nellie Hopkins, and junior back-row specialist Kyla Kennedy.

Rib Lake went 0-6 in conference play during the short season and 0-7 overall.

Despite missing two matches while stuck in a quarantine, Bube was Rib Lake’s kill leader for the Lady Redmen with 33. That included a seasonhigh 10 against Marathon on Sept. 24 and eight in a Sept. 22 loss at Phillips and eight in the team’s WIAA Division 4 regional loss to Northland Lutheran on Oct. 20. Bube led the team with eight block kills and ranked second on the team in digs with 42. She served two aces in the regional match.

Hopkins was Rib Lake’s second-best offensive option, notching 26 kills in seven matches. She added three blocks, two of which came in the regional defeat. Her season-high for kills was eight. That also came in the regional match with Northland Lutheran. Hopkins had 11 digs and two aces during the season.

Kennedy started the season as a setter, but moved to libero by the third match and solidified Rib Lake’s defense with her ability to serve receive. She missed one match but recorded a team-high 49 digs in the six matches she played in. She had 13 digs in the loss to Marathon, which was the highest total for a Rib Lake player in a match this fall. She had eight digs in an Oct. 13 loss at Stratford and eight digs in the regional match.

Kennedy had a team-high eight service aces, including four in the Northland Lutheran match and three in a season- opening loss to Prentice Sept. 15. She had a kill against Edgar on Oct. 15.

The 11 teams that stayed with fall volleyball intended to play 10 matches each for a total of 55 conference matches in a five-week span. Eventually, 39 of them were played around COVID-related cancelations.

Stratford (8-1), Phillips (6-1) and Prentice (5-1) came away with the top records in league play. Athens (2-1), Abbotsford (3-3), Prentice and Rib Lake were the teams hardest hit by cancellations. Phillips, however, may have suffered the toughest hit when quarantines knocked the Loggers out of the WIAA post-season after they had earned a one-seed in their Division 3 regional bracket.

Marathon (5-3) wound up winning that bracket and were eliminated by Grantsburg in a WIAA Division 3 sectional semifinal. Prentice won its WIAA Division 4 sectional championship with a thrilling five-set win over Three Lakes Saturday. The Buccaneers face a tough challenge in their state semifinal Friday against top-seeded McDonell Central.

This year’s All-Marawood first team consists of eight players, including one unanimous selection, senior outside hitter Mikayla Guidan of Stratford. Hitters Olivia Burcaw of Prentice, Rachel Callow and Jada Eggebrecht of Phillips, Olivia Hammel of Abbotsford; setter Georgi Schmutzer of Auburndale and liberos Courtney Bittner of Abbotsford and Maddie Krings of Auburndale round out the first team.