MEDFORD VOLLEYBALL - Raiders spike Pines, fall to Comets; will try outside on Tuesday

The long road trip Tuesday to Northland Pines produced a hard-fought 3-1 win for the Medford Raiders, who improved to 2-2 in the Great Northern Conference standings. While the Eagles remained winless in league play at 0-4, they remain one of the GNC’s most improved teams and they didn’t go down without a fight. Medford won the first set 25-22 and the second 25-16. It was all Eagles in set three as they prevailed 25-12. The Raiders avoided going to a fifth set with a 25-20 win in the fourth game. The Raiders got 22 kills from Kayla Baumgartner, who also had just nine errors in 53 swings. Taylor Klingbeil added 10 kills and four solo blocks. She was involved in nine total blocks. Kailyn Haenel had three kills and three solo blocks with four total blocks in the win. The Raiders served at a 94.3% success rate with just five errors in 88 attempts. Finley Arndt had four of the team’s seven aces. Baumgartner had two. Arndt racked up 35 set assists in the match and Rylee Hraby added two. Aliyah Pilgrim was 16 for 16 in serving, Rylee Hraby was 13 for 13 and Laney Hraby was 12 for 12. Arndt and Baumgartner had 13 digs each to lead the team. Laney Hraby had nine and Rylee Hraby had eight. Medford improved to 8-12 overall, while the Eagles are now 13-8. Outdoors, take two Medford’s planned outdoor match against Rhinelander was nixed Friday, but a new attempt at playing under the lights has been scheduled. Now, Medford and Merrill are planning to play their Great Northern Conference match outdoors on Raider Field, weather permitting, on Tuesday, Sept. 30. The JV match will get the festivities started at 5 p.m. with the varsity match expected to start at about 6:30 p.m. Indoors in Raider Hall, the JV2 match is planned for 4:30 p.m. and the JV3 match is set for 5:15 p.m. The Rhinelander matches were pushed back to their originally-scheduled date of Thursday, Oct. 2. The varsity match will start at 7 p.m. in Raider Hall after the 5:30 p.m. JV match. Waupaca 3, Medford 1 Two nights after falling to secondranked Mosinee, the Raiders ran into another tough opponent Thursday in Waupaca, who got on late runs in each of the last two sets to secure a 3-1 nonconference win over the visiting Raiders. Peyton Carlson, a 5-11 senior outside hitter who plans to play NCAA Division I volleyball at Creighton next fall, was tough to stop as she collected 31 kills and Molly Martens had a strong night as well when she rotated to the front, adding 13 kills. Libero Sage Soto was a problem with five aces and 31 of 31 serving for Waupaca and senior Taylor Kling had 41 assists. Medford, though, very well could’ve taken the match in four sets as well. “So close, so many leads,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “Carlson, a D-I recruit, was great, but wow we are improving each day. We are climbing that mountain and are sure fun to watch.” The Raiders took the opening set. They jumped out to a 7-1 lead, fell behind 8-7 and 14-13 and then took the lead for good at 19-14 with a little run that included a Baumgartner kill off a block, two Comet miscues, a Pilgrim ace and a Baumgartner tip past a block. Big Carlson kills got Waupaca within 20-19 and 21-20, but Medford held on and got the last point on a tough serve from Laney Hraby, winning it 25-22. Waupaca controlled the second set for the most part and won it 25-19. Medford tore out to 7-0 and 8-1 leads in set three on a serving run by Pilgrim. Klingbeil had block kills against Johnson and Hailey Bechard. But it didn’t take long for Waupaca to tie it at 8-8 and from there it was a battle. Medford led 12-9 after a Sophia Steinman kill, Waupaca went on a 7-4 spurt to lead 16-14. Medford went on a 5-1 surge to go up 19-17. Martens served two aces to put the Comets ahead 20-19 and three big kills from Carlson sealed the Comets’ 25-20 win. Three aces from Bechard helped Waupaca tear out to a 14-5 lead in game four and that lead hit 16-6 after a Martens kill. But the Raiders got a sideout and, with Laney Hraby serving, got right back into it. Klingbeil got a block and a kill and Hraby served two aces during the 9-0 run that got Medford within 16-15. Kailyn Haenel got a big block kill against Carlson to tie it at 19-19 and Baumgartner got a kill to put Medford in front 20-19. Medford led 21-20 when Carlson got a kill from the middle to tie it, setting off a 5-0 run that gave the Comets the clinching 25-21 win. “We had huge key plays by Kayla, Taylor and Kailyn,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “Sophia had some big fast swings too. Aliyah and Laney served and got us some leads and crawled us back as well. Kayla had some great kills. From big hits to tips, she was reading the court well. Kailyn and Taylor got some big blocks in key moments and had some great swings. Avery also had some great swings. “Rylee and the back row were digging some hard hit balls,” she added. “Finley was setting a great balls, allowing our hitters to connect. Hannah Egle and Ruthie Steinman both got in with some great serves.” Baumgartner had 15 kills, Klingbeil had six and Sophia Steinman added four. Klingbeil had a big night defensively, recording 11 total blocks, including four solos. Baumgartner had three solo blocks as well. Arndt had 22 assists. Laney Hraby had three aces and Pilgrim added two. The Raiders were 79 of 85 in serving (92.9%). Rylee Hraby had 16 digs and Baumgartner had 10.