September 2, 2022 at 10:57 a.m.
Hodag tennis sweeps Phillips, maintains pace in GNC
Hodag tennis sweeps Phillips, maintains pace in GNC
The Hodags dominated play, dropping only six games total between the seven flights, on their way to a 7-0 victory over the Loggers at the RHS tennis courts.
The win kept Rhinelander only two points behind Lakeland for the GNC lead at the halfway point of the conference dual meet season. The T-Birds swept Antigo 7-0 Thursday.
"Phillips has improved a lot. They're getting more consistent," coach Matt Nichols noted. "Our goal was 7-0 and we were able to do that."
Tori Riopel, Kelsey Winter and Shayla Coppenger dropped only one game on Thursday as they took the top three singles flights while sophomore Dawsyn Barkus was a 6-0, 6-0 winner at No. 4.
With Helena Wisner unavailable on Thursday, Paige Oleinik partnered with Taylor Riopel again at No. 1 doubles and the seniors cruised to a 6-0, 6-1 win. Kayla Tessman and Olivia Jones won 6-0, 6-0 at No. 2 and Evelyn Sawyer and Brooke Sisel were 6-0, 6-2 winners in the third flight.
"We shifted the doubles around and decided to bring, essentially, our JV No. 1 doubles up and (No. 3 doubles player) Amber (Bramm) was fine with that. A little different look in the lineup but still the results we needed to get," Nichols said.
Nichols added Thursday's match was a chance for the Hodags to incorporate some new strategies into their gameplay, which was the case up and down the lineup.
"Doubles, we worked a lot on getting around the ball on volleys and, we've done this the whole season, but just focusing on the angles. Then also being active with poaching or fake poaching," he said. "Singles, we worked a couple of different strategies, essentially different patterns of where we place the ball. That was nice to try to incorporate into today's game too."
The Hodags sit 10-11 overall and 3-1 in the Great Northern Conference as they hit a rare lull in their schedule. Rhinelander doesn't return to play until this Thursday, when it travels to Wausau to take on Newman Catholic.
"I think it's the perfect time for it," Nichols said. "They get a long weekend off with Labor Day, kind of ease into school and then we get Friday, Tuesday and Wednesday, three days of practice before the next match, which is crazy. We're definitely going to use it. I think that's the first time all season since the first week (we've had that many consecutive days of practice). It will be great. It will really build on a lot of thing."
The Cardinals dropped to 0-3 in the GNC with a 4-3 loss at Medford on Thursday and will be fighting to keep pace in what has been a jumbled conference race so far this season.
"Newman is a strong team and their singles are very solid," Nichols said. "We definitely need to come in with a lot of focus and have to be playing our best tennis that day if we want to get the wins that we need to set ourselves up for this conference win."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
WEATHER SPONSORED BY
E-Editions
Latest News
E-Editions
Events
August
To Submit an Event Sign in first
Today's Events
No calendar events have been scheduled for today.
Comments:
You must login to comment.