June 7, 2021 at 8:34 a.m.
Simply the best
Hodag tennis takes five flights, secures another GNC championship
Simply the best
The Hodags cruised on a hot day on their home courts, taking championships in five of the seven flights as they won the GNC tournament, securing the program's seventh straight conference title and ninth in the last 11 years.
Rhinelander's Jacob Weddle repeated as the conference singles player of the year, waiting two years to retain his crown after COVID-19 canceled the 2020 season. Rhinelander also had the doubles tandem of the year as Luke Ring and Elijah Evers won the conference championship at No. 1 doubles.
Joey Belanger, Billy Berwig, Layne Roeser, Joseph Heck and Jake Losch also won conference titles as the Hodags outscored Medford 37-27 on the day and beat the Raiders by 26 points for the overall title.
"It's very exciting. The guys worked hard for this," said coach Matt Nichols, who earned his first GNC title in his first season after taking over for longtime head coach Bob Heideman. "They played really well today, whether they won their flight or didn't. Everyone put in a great effort. They improved a lot over the season and came to show off their talent today."
The overall conference title was pretty much a formality, as the Hodags entered with a 16-point cushion over Medford, thanks to a 5-2 win at Antigo on Thursday. That left the Hodags needing 27 points to lock up the title. Many of those points were earned with first- and second-round byes in Friday morning's seeding meeting, and by the time Weddle defeated Pacelli's Charlie Kulick in the semifinals at No. 1 singles, the title was mathematically secured.
Weddle rolled 6-2, 6-0 over Kulick in the semis and then blitzed Antigo's Garrett Husnick, 6-0, 6-0 in the championship match.
"I was playing really well today. I was hitting my shots well. That's what gave me the conference championship," Weddle said. "It really sucked not being able to play last year, but it was really fun to come back, play well again and do this conference championship. It's a really fun tournament, all the guys here from the other teams are really nice and it's fun to play them."
Weddle improved to 16-0 on the season with the victories.
"He's so strong," Nichols said. "He had good rallies but didn't face much opposition and it's reflected in the scores. It shows the hard work he's put in, in the offseason and how hard he's worked at practice this season."
Things were a little more interesting for Ring and Evers at No. 1 doubles. They got by Pacelli's Jacob Mengel and Mateo Koch, 6-2, 6-4 in the semis before taking on Tahtankka and Kevin Damm of Medford in the championship. After rolling to a 6-1 win in the first set, Ring and Evers found themselves down two break points, 0-4 in the second. The Hodag juniors won the next five games to get back on serve, only to get broken in the 11th game. They broke back in the 12th game to force a set tiebreaker.
Up 4-0 in the tiebreaker, the Hodags fell behind 5-4 before winning the last three points to close out the match.
"It was kind of us trying to pick up a rhythm again," Ring said. "They were playing really well in the second set. It was primarily us just getting the ball back to the point where we could point it away."
Added Evers, "I felt like I was killing it at the net, getting a lot of put-away shots, but my baseline groundstroke game needs some work. I'm looking to improve upon that for subsectionals."
At No. 2 singles, a loss on Tuesday to Medford's Quinton Tlusty relegated freshman Joey Belanger to the second seed. After beating Antigo's Simon McPhail 6-1, 6-2 in the semis, Belanger turned the tables on Tlusty, rolling to a 6-3, 6-0 win in the championship.
"Part of it was getting that loss earlier just lighting a fire under him, making him aware of some of the deficiencies in his game," Nichols said. "We worked on those. But also he wasn't feeling too good that day. He had a great practice Wednesday, great match on Thursday and he brought the fire today."
The Hodags had the top seed and were unopposed in the semifinals at both Nos. 2 and 3 doubles. Roeser and Berwig secured the title in the second flight with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Medford's Saskatoon Damm and Adam Swedlund while Jake Losch and Heck had a 6-2, 6-2 win in the championship over Medford's Dante Axon and Brayden Machon.
"(Two doubles) had not one of their best tennis days, but it was still good enough for the flight win. Still some nice points, some good serves and net play all around," Nichols said. "Three doubles had nice movement on the court, good communication between the two of them and they rallied to beat a team they went three sets with before."
Leo Losch was the runner up at No. 3 singles for Rhinelander, falling to Medford's Ethan Swiantek, 6-4, 6-2 in the championship match while Joey Sturzl finished third at No. 4 singles, falling in the semifinal match in straight sets to Antigo's Nolan Bunnell. Both Losch and Sturzl received all-conference honors for placing inside the top three in their respective flights.
It all added enough to yet another GNC championship for the Hodags.
"It was quite the day. Everyone played well," Nichols said. "We really grinded down these last couple of days at practice. It showed. We came. We were mentally there and we played like we wanted it."
Rhinelander defeated Antigo Thursday 5-2 after waiting out some afternoon rain showers give itself some more breathing room entering Friday's play. Weddle and Belanger were straight-set winners in the top two singles flights. Ring and Evers won at No. 1 doubles while Antigo forfeited at the two other doubles flights.
The Hodags were in a strong position ahead of WIAA subsectional play, which took place Monday in Wausau. Rhinelander was looking to advance as many flights as possible to sectionals Wednesday at Bay Port.
"We're really going to have to play good," Weddle said. "We're hoping to send a lot of guys to sectionals on Wednesday, hoping to try our best and beat those good teams."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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