May 11, 2018 at 1:14 p.m.
Flying toward five
Hodag tennis takes down Pacelli, Antigo, opens commanding lead in GNC
Flying toward five
By comparison, this year's conference title defense is turning into a cake walk.
The Hodags are in full control of the GNC after beating second-place Pacelli by matching 6-1 scores in a doubleheader Wednesday in Stevens Point. Rhinelander put a bow on an undefeated dual meet season with a 7-0 win over Antigo Thursday at the RHS tennis courts.
The results have virtually locked up another conference title for the Hodags.
Rhinelander is guaranteed to enter the conference tournament in Antigo with at least a 30-point lead in the standings, and will likely have enough of a cushion to clinch the title before a single match is played next Friday.
"That's a pretty big lead and, boys' or girls', so that's 16 seasons, the team going in (with the lead) has won the conference championship," Rhinelander coach Bob Heideman said. "I think we'll be hard to catch."
Pacelli doubleheader
The biggest boost for the Hodags came at the top of the lineup where senior Markus Johnson, who's been nursing a sore shoulder, returned to his customary spot at No. 1 singles and made short work of Pacelli's Nick Hasler, taking the first match 6-0, 6-1 and the second 6-2, 6-1.
"It was good to have Markus back at No. 1 singles," Heideman said. "With him there and playing well we are a much stronger team. He's not 100 percent but he's getting better by the day.
"We had hoped that giving Markus the weekend off would put him in the position to play (in singles) against Lakeland (on Monday). That didn't happen and that ended up being a close match. He was ready to play against Pacelli and so now we're back in stride."
Toward the bottom of the lineup, Rhinelander had answers for whatever combination Pacelli threw its way, winning virtually every match handily in straight sets.
The only spot of trouble came in the second match at No. 2 doubles, where seniors Grant Gilbert and Jared Fabich dropped the first set to Chris Jensen and Thomas Basala, 6-1. The Hodag tandem tallied to win the second set 6-1 and took the super-tiebreaker 10-6 to claim the match.
"Grant and Jared showed some senior experience after losing their first set 1-6, recovering in the second set, then going down 1-4 in the third-set tie breaker, then stringing some points together to pull ahead," Heideman said.
Jacob Weddle rolled in his matches at No. 3 singles, with a love-and-love win over Jarrett Shields in the first match and a 6-1, 6-1 triumph over Trevin Milbauer in the second. Freddy Wisner beat Ben Kroening in the first match at No. 4 singles, 6-2, 6-1 and beat Sam Lamotte 6-0, 6-1 in the second.
Lamotte played No. 2 doubles with Jensen in the first match. That Pacelli pair was routed by Fabich and Gilbert 6-1, 6-2.
Cade Aschenbrenner and Logan Oestreich were 6-1, 6-2 winners over Isaac Kosoloucki and Andrew Pisarski in the first match at No. 3 doubles and 6-0, 6-2 winners over Kroening and Pisarski in the second.
"Cade and Logan continue to eliminate mistakes each match, which is a boon to their consistency," Heideman noted.
Connor Young and Jared Haug defeated Matthias Kroening and Charlie Kulick by scores of 6-3, 6-2 and 6-2, 6-2 at No. 1 doubles. Russell Benoy suffered Rhinelander's only losses on the day, dropping a pair of matches to Corey Baron at No. 2 singles.
The matches, originally scheduled to be played in Rhinelander, were moved to indoor courts at Sentry World in Stevens Point due to rain.
Hodags sweep Robins
Rhinelander blasted Antigo on Thursday in a match that lasted barely more than an hour. The Hodags won all seven matches in straight sets, dropping a total of 13 games.
"We were a little concerned about a little let down after celebrating after Pacelli but that didn't happen and that's to their credit," Heideman said.
The longest match of the night came at No. 1 singles where Johnson outlasted Antigo's Tanner Stueck 6-2, 6-3.
"It wasn't a pushover," Heideman said. "Tanner led at least in the second set. It was close. Tanner hit a flat ball, kept it low and that limited Markus a little bit as far as his power game. As a result, Markus had to change things up a little, but pulled it out."
Haug and Young had the second longest match of the evening, but cruised past Brody Bunnell and Joe Bartletti, 6-2, 6-2.
"I thought Jared Haug covered lobs pretty well," Heideman said. "He did a good job of getting there and getting back. Then I thought Connor volleyed well. As a result, that was one of their better matches."
Benoy, playing what Heideman called his best match in about a week, routed Alex Gray 6-0, 6-1 in the second singles flight. Weddle and Wisner didn't drop a game as they completed the singles sweep.
Fabich and Gilbert were 6-1, 6-0 winners over Jared McFarlane and Zach Reineke in the second doubles flight. Aschenbrenner and Oestreich won at No. 3 doubles, 6-0, 6-2.
Up next
Though Rhinelander's path to a conference title is clear, the team will play a couple of important matches next week prior to the GNC tournament.
The Hodags will travel to Appleton Xavier on Tuesday and will host Shawano and Wausau Newman as part of a quadrangular meet on Thursday.
All three schools are in the WIAA Division 2 subsectional Rhinelander will host the following Monday. Rhinelander and Xavier tied for first in the subsectional last year, each scoring the maximum of 24 points.
"Xavier's going to be very, very tough but, if we don't stumble (in conference), every victory over Xavier could have No. 1 seed consequences," Heideman said. "That's a very big match."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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