September 30, 2019 at 12:43 p.m.
Nine is fine: RHS girls' tennis team cruises to ninth GNC title in 10 years
Nine is fine: RHS girls' tennis team cruises to ninth GNC title in 10 years
The Hodags did enough on Saturday at home. Rhinelander won individual conference titles in the final three singles flights and placed in the top three in all seven flights to take first place in the conference tournament at the RHS tennis courts, wrapping up the team's ninth conference title in 10 years.
Rhinelander, which enjoyed a 10-point lead over Antigo entering Saturday's play, added another eight points to the margin, defeating Antigo 33-25 on the day. The Hodags finished with 125 points in the final conference tally to Antigo's 107. Wausau Newman finished third with 82 points.
"Very pleased with the outcome. One thing I try to keep in mind is we lost five players off last year's team and came back and did this," coach Bob Heideman said. "The nine (titles), it's a great run - a lot of memories and a lot of faces in those years that I'll remember."
This year's title came without last year's dramatics, which came down to a super tiebreaker in the final match of the tournament to decide the championship between the Hodags and Red Robins.
It became apparent early on that an Antigo comeback was not in the cards when its No. 1 doubles team of Greta Parsons and Jenna Lenzner was upset in the first round by Wausau Newman's Grace Sukanen and Julia Welter, costing the Robins an opportunity to score any points in the flight.
That allowed Rhinelander to lock up the conference title before final round play began as the team advanced to the championship match in six of the seven flights. Antigo's title bid officially ended when its No. 2 doubles team of Lily Nicholson and Julia Westen fell in the semifinals to Medford's Brooke Sommer and Kailee Mann.
"I think we got a little help early in the day with Antigo losing at No. 1 doubles. Then, besides that, it kind of played out as we thought," Heideman said.
Senior Kenedy Van Zile finished off the conference portion of her tennis career with a trio of straight set wins at No. 2 singles to capture her third straight conference title to go along with a championship at No 4 singles in 2017 and a No. 3 singles title last year. She knocked off Antigo's Ellie Kelly 7-5, 6-3 in the championship match.
Sophomore Kaylee Pontell also repeated as a conference champion, rolling in the No. 3 singles flight. She dropped a total of three games in two matches on her way to the finals before dispatching Antigo's Margo Kelly 6-4, 6-1.
"Kenedy and Kaylee were the strongest at their position. They came through and did a good job," Heideman said.
Rhinelander's third conference title was delivered by junior Kat Metropulos, who exacted some revenge on Antigo's Brechlyn Flannery. When the teams met for a dual in Rhinelander Sept. 13 Flannery rallied from down 5-0 in the second set to stun Metropulos in three sets. There would be no comeback this time around as Metropulos prevailed 6-4, 7-6 (6).
"She did a nice job in the tiebreaker," Heideman noted. "The girl she played was a very intense competitor and I think Kat had to match that. She did a good job doing it."
Rhinelander's hopes of getting player of the year honors for the first time since 2015 were dashed when the No. 1 doubles team of Alex Oestreich and Jackie Wells faltered in a three-setter to Pacelli's Marissa Stolt and Ella Schroeder.
After dropping the first set 6-2, Wells and Oestreich fought to force a second set tiebreaker, which they won 7-3 to extend the match to a full third set. The Rhinelander pair broke Pacelli in the sixth game to take a 4-2 lead in the set, but Pacelli answered with a break in the seventh game, and then ran out the final three games to take the set and the match, 6-4.
"I think a few too many errors for them at the end of the set for them to keep it up and it might have been that they were kind of tired but, boy, I like what they've done for the team in terms of taking that No. 1 doubles team," Heideman said. "They've got 18 wins at that position and I'm proud of them."
Rhinelander was a perfect 21-0 in doubles matches during the conference dual season which earned the team the top seed in all three flights. The Hodags were unable to match those seeds, however, with all three flights losing in the championship match.
At No. 2 doubles Lisa White and Kathryn Borski lost 6-1, 6-4 to the same Medford team of Sommer and Mann that knocked Antigo out in the semifinals, clinching the overall conference title for Rhinelander.
"In No. 2 doubles, in the championship, Medford, that was the best I saw an opponent play. The Pacelli team at No. 1 doubles also had a nice three-setter against us," Heideman said.
At No. 3 doubles, Jaiden Thiel and Izzy Haverkampf had a chance to win the title, up a set and in a second set tiebreaker against Antigo's Elli Stank and Ellie Preboski, but dropped the tiebreaker and ended up fading in the third set to a 6-4, 6-7 (1), 0-6 defeat.
"I think we ran out of gas at the end," Heideman said. "In one way too, I think Izzy and Jaiden, their roller coaster matches kind of caught up with them a little bit. The nice thing was it was our last match of the day and the tournament was determined by then, so it was more a personal thing than a team thing."
Annika Johnson finished third for the Hodags at No. 1 singles. She lost to Antigo's Avery Nicholson in the semifinals but bounced back for a straight-set win over Lakeland's Kiah Gauthier in the third-place match.
The celebration was not as long or as exuberant for the Hodags' as last year's. Despite starting at 8:30 a.m., the meet did not conclude until nearly 4 p.m. and most of the team made a hasty exit following the awards to get ready for Rhinelander's homecoming dance later in the evening.
Wausau Newman's Becky Larrain won singles' player of the year honors with a straight-set win over Avery Nicholson in the finals at No. 1 singles. Stolt and Schroeder for Pacelli won doubles player of the year honors. Heideman won a split-decision vote by the coaches to be named GNC coach of the year.
The schedule now affords Rhinelander something that has been a bit of a rarity this season - a full week of practice ahead of WIAA subsectional play Oct. 7 in Stevens Point.
However, with rain in the forecast every day except Friday, how much the team will be able to practice remains to be seen.
"We've got to factor in the weather, but I'm anxious to see how the girls react and I'm anxious to get back to work and see if we can raise things a notch." Heideman said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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