Raiders hang tough at end of last two sets to sweep Red Robins

MEDFORD VOLLEYBALL

Facing game points in the last two sets, the Medford Raiders refused to lose in each of them and earned a closerthan-it-looked 3-0 sweep over host Antigo Tuesday to improve to 6-3 in the Great Northern Conference.

The Raiders kept their grip on third place and further distanced themselves from the rest of the pack. That pack includes Antigo, who fell to 3-6 with three matches left. Medford is 2.5 games ahead of fourth-place Lakeland, who sits at 3-5.

Medford completed a season sweep of the Red Robins with Tuesday’s win.

Medford looked sharp in the opening set. Delaney Hraby gave the Raiders a spark with two early aces and Toryn Rau and Cami Rau each had two kills a run that opened up a 15-6 lead. Delaney Hraby deflected a winner off an Antigo blocker, Rylee Hraby served an ace and Delaney Hraby found a hole with a deep push that made it 18-6, which was too much of a hole for the Red Robins to dig out of. Medford capped the 25-15 win with two kills from Martha Miller.

Things didn’t go as easily after that. The second set went back and forth with Medford leading 3-0 early, Antigo coming back to take a 9-6 lead, Medford going up 18-13 after two DeLana Radlinger aces and then Antigo going on a 4-0 run to go up 22-20.

Miller got a kill from the right side and added another from the left to tie it at 22-22. Antigo then got to game point at 24-22, but Miller dug up a potential set winning attack from Lola Cornelius and got the ball over the net. Antigo hit it into the net. A net violation on a point Medford would have won anyway on a Delaney Hraby kill tied it at 24-24. Rylee Hraby’s ace put Medford at game point, but Antigo tied it at 25 and 26 before a missed serve and a receiving error off a Radlinger serve gave Medford a 28-26 win and a 2-0 lead in the match.

Game three had similar swings. Medford got up 11-7 after two Allie Paulson aces and a Toryn Rau block. Miller got two kills to make it 13-9, but Antigo got some momentum, slowly chipped away and eventually took a 1917 lead. The teams traded points until Miller’s kill tied it at 22-22. Cornelius got a kill and Tristin Arlen served an ace to give Antigo game point at 24-22, but Megan Schaefer set up Delaney Hraby for a key kill and Miller’s kill tied it up again. A long serve gave the Robins another game point, but then two violations put Medford at match point. After serving, Delaney Hraby made a chicken wing save that allowed Schaefer to set up Miller with the clinching kill at 27-25.

Miller had a big night with 18 kills, four aces and 16 digs. Delaney Hraby had eight kills, three aces and a solo block. Cami Rau and Allie Paulson had four kills each. Schaefer had 17 assists and Paulson had 16. Schaefer had 14 digs, while Paulson had nine and Rylee Hraby had eight.

Now 12-17 overall, Medford heads to Rhinelander Saturday for the second GNC meet of the fall and will face Mosinee in round one and Northland Pines in round three.

The regular-season finale is set for Tuesday when Medford hosts Lakeland for Senior Night and Cancer Awareness Night. Basket raffles and a miracle minute are planned with proceeds going to Taylor County Moving For a Cure. The varsity match starts at 7 p.m.

Hatchets 3, Raiders 0

GNC-leading Tomahawk earned a 3-0 sweep over Medford at Raider Hall Thursday night, but the good news was the Raiders gave the Hatchets a much better fight than they did the first time around at the first league Saturday meet at Northland Pines on Sept. 17.

Senior middle Meghan Scholz, a DePaul University commit, was Tomahawk’s leader as usual, but she got some offensive help on the outside from senior Alyssa Zehner and the Hatchets had some serving spurts that gave Medford trouble at times.

But the Raiders, especially in games two and three, took advantage of the times Scholz rotated to the back row and was taken out of the game and, for the most part, defended her better as well.

“The main defense against her is to keep them out of system so maybe she has to take that second ball,” Medford head coach Cheryl Schreiner said. “Then they can’t use her. Or you try to serve at their weaker passers so they can’t feed her the sets that she likes. The other thing was, we told our left sides that go in to double block her, if the pass is perfect you can go to her. You might as well take the risk of leaving that outside by herself because nine times of 10 that set’s going to be Meghan. We just played the percentages on that one. We told the back row to take a step up and hopefully we’re in the right spot.

“We did get some nice touches on (Scholz) that slowed the ball down,” Schreiner added. “Then we were able to defend too. I said we’re not asking you guys to stuff block her, but if you can get some fingers on that ball, it really slows it down and helps your back row out.”

Tomahawk went on a big run midway through game one and won going away 25-11.

But with Scholz out, Medford got on a nice early run with Paulson serving in game two and took an 8-5 lead. Paulson had an ace and Miller had a kill in that run. Miller hit a winner off a block to keep Medford in front 9-7. The Hatchets caught Medford at 10-10 on a Zehner ace and scored four more points to go up 1410. The lead got to 22-14, Medford made a little run to get within 23-19, but Zehner got two kills to end the set at 25-19.

Game three was tight most of the way. Delaney Hraby got a block kill on Mackenzie Scholz to tie it at 11-11. Hraby got her again, blocking a tip to keep Medford within 13-12 and her off-speed shot was well-placed for a kill to keep the Raiders within 17-15.

A senior in her first year with the varsity, Hraby has steadily improved.

“Delaney is the most pleasant surprise this year,” Schreiner said. “Her attitude in practice is phenomenal. She is really good with helping the younger girls and including them in everything. She has just come into her own this year. It’s really fun to see and she’s having a good time out there. She’s playing like a senior with nothing to lose, which is awesome to see.”

Unfortunately for Medford, at that point, Tomahawk created the separation it needed to complete the sweep, extending its lead to 22-15. The Raiders crawled back within 23-20, getting a kill and a lefthanded tip from Miller on two of those points. But a couple of errors allowed Tomahawk to finish it.

Delaney Hraby had seven kills in 20 attacks and two solo blocks. Miller led the Raiders with nine kills. Schaefer had 10 assists, Paulson had eight and Rachel Wesle had two. Miller and Radlinger had 15 digs each. Rylee Hraby had 12, Schaefer had 10 and Paulson added nine.

“I told the girls they have nothing to hang their heads about walking out of this gym tonight, especially in that last set they played them really tough,” Schreiner said. “We tend to get a little tip happy sometimes. We just said we have to keep attacking, keep attacking. Attack a few, then you tip a few, keep the defense off-balance.”

Memorial Invite

The Raiders also went to the six-team Eau Claire Memorial Invitational on Saturday and didn’t have much luck, going 0-3 for the day.

Medford was placed in a difficult opening pool with Division 1 squads Marshfield and the host Old Abes. Marshfield swept Medford 25-16, 25-11 and Memorial beat the Raiders 25-18, 2512.

In the crossover match to determine fifth place, Medford fell to Eau Claire Regis 25-15, 25-16.

Marshfield won the tournament, beating Onalaska 25-18, 25-10 in the championship. Memorial beat D.C. Everest 25-20, 25-21 in the third-place match.

Medford’s DeLana Radlinger receives an Antigo serve and bumps the ball to setter Megan Schaefer during Tuesday’s win over the Red Robins.JAMIE TAYLOR/ANTIGO DAILY JOURNAL