August 14, 2017 at 1:36 p.m.
Hodags fall to West in scrimmage
Hodags fall to West in scrimmage
The Hodags dropped a scrimmage, 5-2, to an improved Wausau West squad Saturday at the RHS tennis courts. Rhinelander was swept in all four singles flights, but took two of the three varsity matches in doubles.
"In general, I liked their fight," RHS tennis coach Bob Heideman said afterward. "Down or up, we played pretty hard and I think that that's a good sign. West is a solid team."
Moving to the top of the singles order for the first time, senior Belinda Weddle and sophomore Alex Oestreich faced an uphill battle Saturday, both losing their matches 6-0, 6-0. Weddle was swept by impressive freshman Tasha Bailey in the top flight while Oestreich fell to Lilia Teske at second singles. Teske is coming off a state tournament appearance in doubles and defeated Ivy Packard at No. 1 singles during last year's scrimmage between the two teams.
"At No. 1 and 2 (singles), they're especially good and I think that's good," Heideman said, chalking Saturday up as a learning experience for Weddle and Oestreich. "Belinda's been around a lot of years and you can tell (players) what it's like (at No. 1 singles), but playing there is just a different thing."
Emma Roberts fell 6-2, 6-1 to West's Emily Names at No. 3 singles while Kenedy Van Zile rounded out the singles lineup for Rhinelander with a 6-2, 7-5 loss to Claire Bizjak. Van Zile led the second set 5-3 before Bizjak reeled off four straight games to take the match.
"Emma played some nice points, long points and then couldn't string those points together, and that caused some problems," Heideman said. "Kenedy just got a lot of balls back. That was a good No. 4 player (Bizjak) and I think she's playing how we want her to play at No. 4."
The longest match of the day went Rhinelander's way. Newly-formed No. 2 doubles team Madi Losch and Alexis Pyrchalla rallied from down 2-5 in the first to take the opening set in a tiebreaker. Losch and Pyrchalla held off a late run by West's Phylisha Majia and Sam Melberg to take the second set 6-4 in a match that took nearly 2 hours, 20 minutes to complete.
"It was a close match and they kind of toughed it out, a long match," Heideman said. "Not that there wasn't improvement, but that's the element of competing. Whether you're playing well or not, they were competing well against that team at that time and pulled off enough shots to win it."
Sophomores Jackie Wells and Lisa White won the third doubles match 7-6 (5), 6-2 over Mikahla Klug and Nina Faggerman.
"I think Jackie, in terms of two or three years ago, has come a long way. I think that there's a lot of improvement in here," Heideman said.
Juniors Haley Seefeldt and Savannah Chartier lost 6-2, 6-3 in the top flight of doubles. Seefeldt was one half of last year's GNC championship pairing at No. 3 doubles last year. The other half of that tandem, senior Livi Roberts, was out of town Saturday, but Heideman noted that she will likely rejoin Seefeldt at No. 1 doubles when she returns.
Despite entering the season with several unknowns, Heideman said Saturday's scrimmage was a good indication of what the Hodags' lineup will look like going forward.
"It's going to be very similar to this," he said.
The Hodags conclude a two-day invite in Wausau today and will begin Great Northern Conference play Thursday in a doubleheader at Marshfield Columbus.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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