WIAA DIV. 2 VOLLEYBALL - Season’s over

WIAA DIV. 2 VOLLEYBALL

The WIAA Division 2 regional volleyball matchup between Antigo and Medford felt like it had five-game potential from the moment it was announced and the two teams did not disappoint when they squared off Tuesday at Raider Hall.

While a tough regional semifinal task at top-seeded Shawano awaited the winner, there was no lack of wanting to get there as the Red Robins and Raiders battled back and forth and went the distance in a match finally won by Antigo 15-11 in the fifth game.

Medford fought off match point at 2422 in game four with four straight points to win it 26-24 and extend the match to the decisive fifth set. The Raiders had momentum in the fifth, taking an 8-6 lead with a 4-0 run and then a 10-8 lead, but Antigo went on a 7-1 tear to close it out and earn the trip to Shawano tonight, Thursday.

“They played hard. They didn’t give up,” Medford head coach Ashley Jochimsen- McCarron said after the loss. “They worked hard. It’s just a hard loss. That’s what makes us the eight and nine seeds, right? We were close. We split during the season and went five tonight.”

Throughout the match, any time one team seemed to be riding the momentum and exerting its will, the other found a way to answer and stop that momentum.

Jochimsen-McCarron said the Raiders had a great practice Monday and it carried into the match. Medford was sharp in game one, pulling away from an early 5-5 tie. Megan Schaefer served back-toback aces, the Raiders hit spots short, they had spots deep, Kayla Baumgartner and Amelia Pernsteiner tooled balls off blockers’ arms for points and the Raiders found themselves at set point at 24-13.

The Red Robins got a sideout and Tristin Arlen floated in some short serves that got the Raiders out of system and helped Antigo put six straight points on the board before the Raiders got one to finish the set at 25-19.

But that stretch by Antigo marked a key momentum shift as the Red Robins relied heavily on off-speed stuff and frustrated the Raiders defensively. Antigo led by as much as five in game two, saw the Raiders rally to take a 17-16 lead on a Pernsteiner kill off a free ball and then took the momentum right back thanks to a couple of Lily Muraski aces late that helped push the Robins to a 25-21 win.

“They tipped a lot,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “I felt like in games two and three they just kept tipping. Then we finally adjusted.”

The end of game three was another pivotal point in the match. The Raiders started strong, getting three straight aces from Finley Arndt and a kill from Cami Rau to jump out to a 6-0 lead. Rau’s big block later made it 11-5 and Kayla Baumgartner served an ace and Shayla Radlinger put down a kill to widen the lead to 13-5. But back came Antigo again. A 10-1 run gave the Robins a 15-14 lead and the teams traded the lead several times from there. Radlinger and Toryn Rau won key points at the net to tie it at 24-24, but the Raiders couldn’t quite put it away, falling 27-25 to get into must-win mode.

Antigo’s confidence flowed in an 8-2 start to game four. It was 10-5 when a Radlinger kill started to swing the pendu-lum back toward Medford. Rachel Wesle hit a winner off a blocker, Toryn Rau got an easy tap off a free ball and Rylee Hraby served an ace to tie at 10-10. Cami Rau emphatically blocked Antigo’s Mya Burt twice in a row to push Medford ahead 1211. The Red Robins got momentum back with an 8-2 surge to go up 19-14. Medford responded by steadily cutting into the lead and pulling within 23-22 when Cami Rau dug up her own blocked attack, Hraby passed it over to Megan Schaefer, whose bump found a weak spot in Antigo’s defense. Burt got a point for Antigo with a block kill, but Toryn Rau’s block and then a debated illegal attack call on Antigo’s libero Carly Jaworski tied it. Cami Rau then hammered two straight kills to win it for Medford 26-24.

“To come back in game four was huge,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “Cami Rau worked hard. She was big in that front row.”

Lola Cornelius hit the back corner with an attack and then she got a tip to fall to stake Antigo to an early 4-2 lead in game five. It was 6-4 when Medford made a move, getting a winner from Radlinger off a block, a Cami Rau tip, an Antigo error and another big block from Toryn Rau. The Raiders got another key point to make it 9-7 when Baumgartner somehow reached out and kept a ball alive when Cami Rau got blocked and the rally eventually ended on an Antigo error. Cami Rau’s kill made it 10-8.

“I felt like we had the hammer,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “We had that two-point lead. We wanted to keep (Cornelius) in the back row as long as we could. It just didn’t work out.”

Baumgartner’s kill at 11-9 wound up being Medford’s last point of the 2023 season. Cornelius drilled a kill down the sideline, a few mishits by Medford, a tip by Arlen into the middle at 14-11 and then a win at the net by Cornelius ended it.

Baumgartner was Medford’s kill leader with 16 but she had help. Radlinger had nine kills, Cami Rau had eight with most coming in the second half of the match, Toryn Rau had five and Wesle had four. Schaefer had 17 assists and Arndt had 12.

Cami Rau stepped up with her teamhigh five solo blocks. Toryn Rau had three. On a night where both teams had some exceptional saves and were diving all over the floor, Hraby led Medford with 40 digs. Baumgartner had 15, Arndt had 14, Schaefer had 10 and Aliyah Pilgrim added nine.

Medford had a 91.1% serve percentage (82 of 90) with 11 aces, including three apiece from Arndt and Schaefer and two from Toryn Rau.

Medford finished the year at 15-22 overall in the Raiders’ first year under Jochimsen-McCarron and her coaching staff. Antigo takes a 16-18 record into Shawano, who is 36-4.

Most of the Raiders’ roster should return in 2024, but they will say goodbye to Cami Rau, Wesle, Hannah Fleegel and Emily-Grace Rudolph, who missed the last three weeks due to injury.

“Cami left it all out there,” Jochimsen-McCarron said. “Nothing to hang her head about. Rachel played well. Hannah and Emily were great teammates. They were always encouraging. It didn’t always land how they wanted but I couldn’t ask for a better group of seniors.

“Now we’ll work through it, the offseason will be busy with a lot of work to

do.”