Hodag Highlights: Rhinelander volleyball struggles in early contests

The Rhinelander volleyball team struggled in its season-opening tournament on Tuesday, Aug. 26 finishing winless in four matches at Stevens Point.
The nine-team tournament featured three pools of three teams each. After pool play, teams competed against the corresponding finishers from the other two pools in best-of-three matches. Games were played to 25 points, with tiebreaking third games to 15.
Rhinelander opened pool play against Berlin, winning the first game before dropping the next two to fall 2-1. The Hodags then lost 2-0 to host Stevens Point to finish third in their pool.
In cross-pool play against fellow third-place finisher Northland Pines, Rhinelander suffered its most lopsided defeat of the day, falling 25-10, 25-9.
The Hodags showed improvement in their final match against Wisconsin Rapids, another third-place team. After losing the opener 25-13, Rhinelander nearly forced a decisive third game before falling 28-26 in the second set.

Senior Libbey Buchmann led Rhinelander’s offensive attack with eight kills while adding 23 assists, 15 digs and five aces despite playing on an injured knee. Senior McKenzie Paulson contributed 10 kills.
Defensively, senior libero Tori Stella paced the Hodags with 19 digs. Junior Olivia Ruetz led the team with four blocks.
The tournament marked the first competition of the season for Rhinelander under head coach Jayme Wyss.
On Thursday, Sept, 4, the team hosted their first home match of the season against Tomahawk. The Hodags were without Buchmann as she underwent knee surgery in the morning and will be lost for the season. Tomahawk swept the home team 25-13,25-17 and 25-17. The Hodags were scheduled to travel to Antigo on Tuesday.