Tomahawk is too much for Raiders, whose season ends in regional semis

WIAA DIV. 2 VOLLEYBALL

The third time was not a charm for the Medford Raiders Thursday night, who were swept once again by Great Northern Conference champion Tomahawk, this time in a WIAA Division 2 volleyball regional semifinal at the Hatchet Fieldhouse.

The conference’s top player in 2022, middle Meghan Scholz, again was her nearly unstoppable self, plus she got some help on the outsides from Alyssa Zehner and Clair Albert. The eighthseeded Raiders knew they needed to keep their unforced errors to a minimum to have a chance to hang in there, but they had more of those than they wanted as they finished their 2022 season with a 1420 overall record.

Tomahawk improved to 29-7 overall on Saturday with a 3-1 victory over fifthseeded Shawano in the regional final. The Hatchets will play second-seeded Oconto Falls in a sectional semifinal match tonight, Thursday on the top-seeded Hatchets’ home court.

“They are where they are for a reason,” Medford head coach Cheryl Schreiner said. “They’re very good. They really shored up their defense at the end of the season, which gave them even better chances of getting the ball to Meghan even more.”

Medford was competitive for some stretches in Thursday’s match. The first of those came midway through the first set. After falling behind 11-4, the Raiders got a sideout and an Allie Paulson ace and then worked their way back within 13-10. Delaney Hraby got a block kill against Scholz and a net violation on the Hatchets got Medford within 17-12 and the teams traded points to make it 18-13.

But a Scholz tip and a kill from Zehner tipped things back in Tomahawk’s favor. Scholz got the 1,000th kill of her Hatchet career at 21-14 and she followed that up with a successful back-row attack. The Hatchets went to win the set 25-16.

“We were able to hang in there, and then something woke up the beast that is Meghan,” Schreiner said. “She was just able to get over the top of our blockers. Our defense did the best they could.”

Game two was never really in doubt. Tomahawk jumped ahead 9-2 and 13-4 before the Raiders got points on a successful back-row attack from DeLana Radlinger and a Cami Rau spike off a blocker to make it 13-6. With Zehner serving, the Hatchets went on a 5-0 spurt to go up 18-6 before the Raiders made a little run behind Rylee Hraby’s serving to creep within 18-10.

That was as close as Medford got. Albert sandwiched two kills around a powerful spike from Scholz and some Medford miscues helped the Hatchets seal a 25-13 win.

Medford fell behind 8-5 in game three before another mini serving run by Rylee Hraby, which included a block kill from Delaney Hraby gave the Raiders a shortlived 9-8 lead.

But a tip kill by Mackenzie Scholz tied it and Meghan Scholz was given two easy free balls by the Raiders to kill and Albert got a kill as well to put momentum back in Tomahawk’s hands. Medford got kills from Paulson and Martha Miller to get within 17-12, but Tomahawk finished on an 8-2 run to close out the match at 2514.

Miller led Medford with six kills, Paulson had five, Delaney Hraby had three and Cami Rau had two. The Raiders had 17 kills and 21 attack errors, some of which were unforced and others certainly were affected by Scholz’s presence.

Megan Schaefer had 11 assists for Medford, while Paulson added two. Paulson, Schaefer and Miller were each credited with one ace. Medford had just four errors in 46 serves. Paulson, Rachel Wesle and Delaney Hraby each had a solo block. Miller had 11 digs, Paulson had 10, Rylee Hraby had nine and Schaefer had eight.

“I’m sure there were some nerves,” Schreiner said. “I don’t think the scores reflect how much the girls put into it. They really did lay it out on the line. We talked about in practice that we were going up there with nothing to lose.

“One of the girls said afterward we never got down and lost the smiles on our faces,” she added. “We never gave up. That’s all you can ask.”

The Raiders say goodbye to five seniors –– Miller, Delaney Hraby, Paulson, Radlinger and Anna Wanke –– and now turn things over to a handful of juniors and sophomores who got varsity time this fall as well as a rising freshman class.

“If you look at where we started from when I was trying to just figure out a lineup to where we are now, we improved a lot,” Schreiner said. “We had good senior leadership. The seniors were willing to help the younger girls and help them find their place on the team. They all really made some strides.

“It’s nice now for our junior girls like Rachel, Cami and Emily-Grace Rudolph to have that experience and the sophomores like Megan Schaefer, Toryn Rau and Shayla Radlinger too,” she added. “Rylee got some all-conference notice as a freshman, which is really cool. It will be nice for them to come into next year with more confidence.”