Play improves late in match, but Mosinee is just too much

The Medford Raiders weren’t as razor sharp as they knew they needed to be to have a shot and Mosinee’s ability to bury shots was simply too much to handle Thursday during the Indians’ 3-0 sweep in a WIAA Division 2 volleyball regional semifinal.

The top-seeded Indians set the tone with a lopsided win in game one. Medford put up a stronger fight in game two, but a big mid-game run allowed Mosinee to win that set comfortably. The third set was tight until the very end when the Indians used a 7-2 closing run to finish it 25-20.

Mosinee (32-3) went on to claim the regional championship Saturday with a nailbiting 3-2 victory over fourth-seeded Waupaca and will host second-seeded Winneconne tonight, Thursday in a sectional semifinal. Eighth-seeded Medford finished its year 17-16.

Medford had no answers for Mosinee’s middle combination of Abbi Martin (11 kills in 19 attacks) and Jenna Placek (eight kills, three solo blocks), Jessica Maurer added 10 kills from the outside and Alexis Jonas had five of Mosinee’s 10 service aces. Megan Fredrikson had six kills for Medford, but no one else had more than three as Mosinee held a 3717 advantage in attack kills during the match. As a team, the Indians compiled an impressive .273 attack percentage.

For the second straight match, Medford played without outside hitter Martha Miller, who sprained an ankle in practice last Monday.

“They are tall and their two middles are very strong,” Medford head coach Cheryl Schreiner said. “They are just solid. They’re very solid defensively.

“Going in, we felt we had to modify our defense a little bit,” she added. “It’s hard to defend when a team is able to hit over the top of your blockers. We talked about taking a step up and playing the ball more with our hands versus from our platform. We came out a little too timid.”

Mosinee got the Raiders on their heels quickly, jumping out to a 12-0 lead in the opening set. Medford made a short run, getting within 13-5 with Rynn Ruesch defl ecting a shot off a Mosinee block, Allie Paulson getting a roll to fall and Laurissa Klapatauskas blocking Placek. But after a Fredrikson kill made it 15-7, the Indians went on another 10-2 tear to close out a 25-9 win.

Medford fell behind 7-1 in game two but clawed its way back in it. Ruesch and Fredrikson teamed up for a block and an Abbie Frey dig led to a Katie Lybert push that found the back corner and made it 7-5. Katie Brehm’s kill got Medford within 11-8 and Mosinee error got the Raiders within 13-11.

But Placek put down two big kills and Maurer served up two straight aces in a 7-0 run that pushed the lead back to nine at 20-11 and gave the Indians the separation they needed to win 25-15.

“We weren’t aggressive in the first set,” Schreiner said. “We kind of played it safe. After that we said if we’re going to go down, we’re going to go down swinging. Let’s hit the ball hard and we did that after the first set. We had some nerves at first, there’s no doubt in my mind. We needed to play to win instead of playing not to lose.”

Paulson got a kill and a block as Medford led by as much as three at 7-4 early in set three. Mosinee took its first lead of the set at 11-10, but Paulson tied it back up with a kill. Martin, who had six of her kills in the third set alone, got one with power and another with finesse to put the Indians back on top. Down three, Fredrikson and Frey were able to tool shots off blockers to tie the set for Medford at 18-18. Mosinee scored three, Klapatauskas got a kill to make it 21-19, but that was as close as the Raiders got down the stretch.

Brehm and Paulson had three kills, while Mosinee bottled up Rynn Ruesch, holding her to two. Gabby Brunner had Medford’s only ace. Emma Brost led the Raiders with seven set assists. Lybert had five and Paulson had three.

Olivia Krug had 13 digs, Lybert had six and Klapatauskas had four.

“Megan especially in the third set was able to really turn it on,” Schreiner said. “Katie Brehm has been getting better all year switching from the middle to the right side. She did an awesome job this year. Gabby Brunner was another one who adjusted to a new position in the back and she did really well with that. It was nice that they were able to be flexible with their positions.”

Serving was a key difference in the match with Mosinee holding a 10-1 edge in aces. The Raiders had six errors, though Mosinee had eight, but Medford had nine receiving errors, while the Indians had only one.

With the departures of 11 seniors –– Ruesch, Fredrikson, Brehm, Krug, Klapatauskas, Brunner, Lybert, Frey, Brost, Autumn Krause and Hailey Fisher –– the Raiders are left with Miller and Paulson as the only players returning in 2022 with major varsity minutes while DeLana Radlinger got some limited time.

“I feel during the season the team kept improving,” Schreiner said. “We improved week after week. ... We have some young talent coming up. We have some freshmen that are pretty good. With next year’s seniors we have Martha and Allie coming back and then players like Anna Wanke, Delaney Hraby and DeLana. There’s a good core there.”