August 24, 2020 at 8:50 a.m.
Team preview: RHS girls' tennis
Team preview: RHS girls' tennis
The Hodags lost six seniors from a squad that won back-to-back conference titles. Then, in May, longtime head coach Bob Heideman stepped down, turning the reins over to first-year head coach Matt Nichols.
Then, due to the pandemic, the Hodags saw the number of matches scheduled drop significantly for the 2020 season, altering the way this year's conference champion will be decided.
"The dynamic is a little different this year," Nichols told the River News in an interview late last week.
The team started practice last Monday and was scheduled to begin Great Northern Conference play yesterday at home against Marshfield Columbus. The match had been originally scheduled for today, but Nichols indicated the schedule change via a text message to the River News over the weekend.
It will be part of a seven-match conference dual meet season that, at this point, will exclusively determine the conference championship. The GNC tournament, that was scheduled for the end of next month in Antigo was canceled by the conference superintendents during a meeting in early August.
That places an even greater emphasis on every match within every conference dual.
"You have to hit the ground running. We might not have a conference meet, so every dual, even the early ones are going to matter, in terms of taking that conference title," Nichols said. "I feel like we're doing a real quick crash course because there are so many things to cover. We went through a lot of the fundamentals early this week and then we're going to be jumping into a lot of playing to try to determine our lineup and then jumping into some game strategy so we're ready when we play Columbus on Tuesday."
The Hodags did not have any matches under their belt prior to the opener, given that the three other schools that were scheduled to take part in a quadrangular at Rhinelander this past Friday backed out due to the pandemic.
As Rhinelander takes the court, expect to see the majority of the team's experience in the singles portion of the lineup, with a number of fresh faces vying to fill spots on a completely reloaded doubles side.
Junior Annika Johnson returns for her second year in the Hodags' No. 1 singles spot. She went 16-15 overall last year and was the third-place finisher in the Great Northern Conference tournament. Last year's conference champion at No. 2 singles, Kenedy Van Zile, graduated, but the team returns the conference champions at Nos. 3 and 4 with junior Kaylee Pontell (26-4) and senior Kat Metropulos (17-4). The only other returning starter from last year, senior Kathryn Borski, is also in the mix in the singles lineup after going 23-10 last year at No. 2 doubles with the since-graduated Lisa White.
"Our singles is looking pretty strong and that's always great for conference play, since you have four singles and only three doubles," Nichols said. "I still think we'll have some strong doubles teams out there but, as far as singles, we're looking strong. I know that whoever takes that fourth spot for singles is going to earn it and do well."
Doubles will have a completely new look for the Hodags this year, following the graduation of White along with No. 1 doubles team Jackie Wells and Alex Oestreich, and No. 3 squad Izzy Haverkampf and Jaiden Thiel.
Nichols said some of that senior experience could be replaced by freshman exuberance. Newcomers Shayla Coppenger, Tori Riopel and Kayla Tessmann are among those vying for spots in the doubles fold. From there, Nichols said players with varsity reserve experience such as senior Alexis Engelking, junior Kylee Younker and sophomore Paige Oleinik are also in the running.
As of late last week, Nichols said he was still sorting through, trying to find the best combination of those vying for doubles spots.
"There are quite a bit who are open to playing doubles," he said. "We've worked on some doubles strategy with all those players, trying to get a look at how they're moving on the court, what kind of shots they have, kind of more specific to doubles and who clicks well with each other. Obviously, there's that dynamic of you're playing with someone else and we have to see who plays well together and who might want to be shifted around and whatnot."
In the past, Heideman-coached squads typically settled on a lineup very early in the season and stuck with it, with very little deviation.
However, Nichols noted his lineup may be a little more fluid this year, especially with a high number of new starters.
"I'll probably end up moving it around a little more than he has in the past. I still want to keep it to a minimum, but try some people. I haven't seen them play nearly as much as coach Heideman has. I'm trying to get different looks at different girls.
"Even some I didn't mention could definitely move around, improve throughout the year and potentially shake up the lineup."
Nichols is looking to maintain the success the Hodag girls' tennis program has had since joining the Great Northern Conference a decade ago. Rhinelander has won nine of the last 10 conference titles, and was runner-up in 2017 when it was edged by Antigo.
Speaking of the Red Robins, they figure to be Rhinelander's top nemesis for the conference title yet again as they are slated to return seven of their 10 starters from last year, including conference singles runner-up Avery Nicholson along with the No. 1 doubles pairing of Jenna Lenzner and Greta Parsons.
"They have a little less rebuilding to do," Nichols noted. "I think that's going to play out well for them. I do think we'll be able to compete with them because we do have some really strong athletes moving up and taking some of those spots that our seniors left. Antigo's looking strong and I know there will be some other teams in the conference - I haven't seen them play or looked at their records as much - but it looks like it will be a good, competitive year."
Other contenders could include Wausau Newman, which is slated to bring back seven of 10 starters from a team that finished third last year, including conference singles champ Becky Larrain.
Though Pacelli finished fifth in conference last season, all 10 of its starters were underclassmen a season ago.
Nichols said, as of now, the main tangible goal for the Hodags is to defend their conference crown.
That's because what there will be for a postseason remains to be seen. As currently scheduled, Rhinelander is slated to host WIAA Division 1 subsectionals Oct. 5, but a determination on if, when or how a culminating event will take place in girls' tennis is expected to be made by the WIAA next month.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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