May 5, 2022 at 7:26 a.m.
Singles sweep carries Hodag tennis past SPASH
Singles sweep carries Hodag tennis past SPASH
Elijah Evers staved off a tiebreaker, winning 7-5 in the second set at No. 2 singles to earn the match-clinching point and give the Great Northern Conference-leading Hodags a victory over the Wisconsin Valley Conference co-leaders.
More importantly, even though Stevens Point is not in Rhinelander's subsectional, the Panthers play a number of teams who are. Thus, Tuesday's win should still have some residual positive effects in terms of postseason seeding.
"It's a nice win. They're a good team, so it's nice to be on top," Hodag coach Matt Nichols said. "They see the Valley teams we're not scheduled to play, Everest or (Wausau) East. We get some nice comparable there for seeding."
Evers battled Stevens Point's Mason DeBot in the longest match of the afternoon. After taking the first set, 6-2. Evers had a chance to serve out for the match up 5-3 in the second. In a long deuce-ad game, Evers could not convert on seven match point chances before DeBot eventually won to get back on serve in the set. Both players won their subsequent service games and by the time they got to the final game of the second set, all the other matches had been completed. Evers got ahead 40-15 in that game and finally, on his ninth match point attempt, broke DeBot to earn the victory.
"It's always tough, mentally, to come back from losing a couple of games in a row, but he was able to clinch the set," Nichols said. "That made it a little less stressful, not having the match tiebreak in there."
Singles carried Rhinelander on the day. Luke Ring took the top flight 6-1, 6-3 over SPASH's Matt Davis. John Currie got a late break point in the first set as he got by Sam Kulick 6-4, 6-3 at No. 3. Dalton Fritz breezed past Will Beyers 6-1, 6-0 in the fourth flight.
"I see good consistency and a nice variation of shots, just making their opponent move around and forcing some errors," Nichols said of his singles lineup. "(Ring has) been playing really well. He's got a strong game and it's just getting stronger. We saw that tonight. He brought it and kept going all the way through. That's a nice win. It's nice to see him build up a strong record and get some good wins. (Fritz is) a strong No. 4 singles player. If there's any drop off in the lineup, he's there to expose it."
Joey Belanger and Layne Roeser were paired together at No. 1 doubles for a second consecutive match, but could not keep up with Luke Hinchcliffe and Noah Hlarac in a 6-1, 6-2 loss. Rhinelander faded in the two other doubles matches. After taking the first set at No. 2 doubles, the team of Charlie Heck and Leo Losch eventually fell in a tiebreaker to Jack Diekelman and Marek Woytasik, 2-6, 6-0, 10-3. Eli Lundt and Dawson Pontell lost in straight sets to Jacob Lutgen and Adam Rust at No. 3, 7-5, 6-0.
"SPASH, very solid doubles teams. We saw that at No. 1," Nichols said. "Unfortunately, we didn't get the win, but they were tight games and they both played well. It was a good learning experience for them. SPASH is just a good team - good cross court returns, good net play. Not bad losses on the double side."
Rhinelander (10-4, 5-0 Great Northern) was home on Thursday to take on Medford, which moved within 14 points of the Hodags in the GNC standings following a 7-0 win over Pacelli on Monday and a rare 3-3 tie against Antigo on Tuesday. Neither side had an entry in No. 4 singles for that match and conference statistician Gregg Scott confirmed it was the first tie in GNC tennis history.
The Hodags are back in action Saturday at the Appleton North Invite.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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