May 21, 2018 at 5:21 p.m.
Fantastic fifth
Hodag tennis dominates GNC meet, cruises to another title
Fantastic fifth
Rhinelander won conference titles in five individual flights, and placed second in the other two, as it steamrolled to first place in the GNC tournament at the Elleson Tennis Courts. The 38 points Rhinelander scored Friday matched the tournament record the team established last year.
The overall conference title was decided before a single ball was struck Friday. With a 36-point lead heading into the day, Rhinelander had mathematically clinched the title when first-round byes in all seven flights added 14 points to its coffer.
That's now 13 Great Northern Conference titles in 15 chances between the boys' and girls' tennis seasons for coach Bob Heideman - he was Mike Messerli's assistant coach when the Hodag boys win the title in 2015 - and they never seem to get old.
"There is a special aspect to this title in that I had this group of seniors on the JV when I was a JV coach," Heideman said. "I've coached them all four years and that's never happened before. It's been a nice journey for those four years. I've enjoyed it and I'm happy that it ended the way it did here as far as conference is concerned."
Rhinelander's Markus Johnson was the GNC singles player of the year as he rolled to the championship at No. 1 singles. Rhinelander won three individual titles in singles and two in doubles on Friday.
"I think it's just a testament to the time we put into the offseason and how much time and effort not only the players, but coach Heideman, put into our program," Johnson said. "I think, throughout the years, we've built a program around a senior class that is really strong. All the time in the summer and all the time in the gym that some other teams don't do or teams don't see makes Rhinelander the program it is."
Johnson, who has been in and out of the top spot of the singles lineup this year due to a sore shoulder, did enough to win on Friday. He beat Antigo's Tanner Stueck 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals and took down Medford's Alec Shear 6-3, 6-3 in the finals.
In both sets against Shear, Johnson broke his opponent's serve in the eighth game and then closed it out in his subsequent service game.
"I kind of struggled this match," Johnson said, citing his shoulder and the fact that the Hodags played four matches in two days. "I had more double faults and my first serve wasn't as powerful as it usually it. I really had to focus on fending off his serve. By doing that, I broke him a lot of times. Then I was able to use my serve enough to win some games and take the match."
"It wasn't the match it was in Medford when they went three (sets)," added Heideman. "It was them giving each other a fair amount of mistakes. But, as so often happens, I think the free points Markus gets on his serve provides that narrow difference where you get a break or you hold serve and put pressure on the other guy."
Perhaps the guttiest win of the afternoon came in the championship match at No. 4 singles where junior Freddy Wisner was down 4-5 in the second set and down love-40 in the 10th game to Pacelli's Trevin Milbauer. Wisner not only fended off three straight points that would have forced a third set, he ran off a string of 11 points over the course of three games as he closed out the match, 7-5, 7-5.
"It was a blur," Wisner said. "I was hitting strokes and they were going in. That's all I was worried about."
Heideman said the win was particularly sweet for Wisner, who had lost three-setters to Xavier and Ashland earlier in the week.
"I think he stored it all up for that little streak," he said. "That was one of the better opponents he faced all year. The guy was pretty consistent, had that backhand slice that kept the ball low. Freddy put on a streak right when he needed it."
Freshman Jacob Weddle breezed through his competition in the third singles flight, defeating Pacelli's Jarrett Shields 6-1, 6-1 in the semifinals and Medford's Sterling Reilly 6-1, 6-0 in the championship match.
"He impressed some coaches today," Heideman said of Weddle's play. "As a freshman, he has such a fundamental base that coaches notice that. That's kind of reflected in his scores. He doesn't hurt himself, doesn't make a lot of mistakes and that base is something he can build on."
Rhinelander also had a relatively easy go of it at No. 3 doubles. After overcoming a second-set hiccup in a 6-1, 7-5 win in the semifinals, Logan Oestreich and Cade Aschenbrenner rolled to a 6-1, 6-2 win over Pacelli's Andrew Pisarski and Isaac Kosobucki in the finals. Heideman said both members of that pair are in the running for the team's most improved player award.
"They don't hurt themselves and their constantly putting pressure on the other team," he said. "I'm thinking of their returns, thinking of their net play. For the level of No. 3 doubles, they have a very solid game."
Jared Fabich and Grant Gilbert captured the second doubles flight for Rhinelander with straight-set wins over Antigo and Medford.
"Their final set was one of their better sets of the year," Heideman said of the 6-2 set Fabich and Gilbert used to close out Logan Searles and Armin Kliewe. "They just got very aggressive and I thought, by the middle of the set, the Medford guys' heads were kind of going down and we just kept it up. In the first set we kind of did that, then let them back in before closing it out. But that was a nice match for those guys."
Russell Benoy finished second for Rhinelander at No. 2 singles, falling to Pacelli's Corey Baron 6-4, 6-2 in the championship match. The Hodags' top doubles team of Jared Haug and Connor Young forced a second-set tiebreaker in the championship match, but fell to Lakeland's Jack Garcia and Anthony Holmes 6-2, 7-6 (2). In both instances, the scores Friday were closer than the regular season meetings.
"It's one of those things where we never lose, we just run out of time," Heideman said. "It's kind of like that. I'd like to play both those teams again because we did make I think some substantial improvement. Hopefully they can do that on Monday, come through and make it to sectionals."
Though the conference title was never in doubt, the Hodags were in need of a strong day Friday to bolster their resume for WIAA subsectional play, which took place Monday at the RHS tennis courts. Heideman viewed the wins as key to helping the Hodags in seeding for a tournament that included four of the five GNC schools and four others.
The top four finishers in the No. 1 singles and doubles flights, and the top two finishers in the other flights advanced to tomorrow's sectional round in Kohler.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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