April 27, 2023 at 8:16 a.m.
Hodag tennis downs Lakeland 5-2
Hodag tennis downs Lakeland 5-2
The Hodags swept doubles convincingly and split singles in a 5-2 victory on the road at Lakeland. Dominic Gironella downed Rhinelander's Dalton Fritz in straight sets at No. 1 singles while Max Durkee dropped his varsity debut at No. 3 singles for the Hodags in three sets against Lakeland's Jack Stepec. Rhinelander won the remainder of the matches convincingly in straight sets.
"Lakeland, they're a nice, developing team. It sucks to lose a couple of spots but it's also kind of exciting to see the conference growing," Hodag coach Matt Nichols said.
The T-Birds were no match for the Hodags in doubles, however. The teams of Joey Belanger and Layne Roeser and Leo Losch and Charlie Heck rolled to 6-0, 6-0 victories at the Nos. 1 and 2 flights, respectively. Eli Lundt and Dawson Pontell were relatively unchallenged in the third flight, winning 6-1, 6-1.
"I think our doubles proves to be very consistent and very strong," Nichols said.
Gironella avenged a three-set marathon loss to Fritz April 7 in the Hodag Dome, taking the rematch 6-1, 6-2. Nichols said the match, like the first between the players, featured a lot of long games but, this time around, Gironella was able to take most of them.
"At the No. 1 flight, it was really close. I think a couple of tweaks here and there could change that or at least make it closer," he said.
Stepec, Lakeland's lone returning all-conference player from last season, rallied from down a set to knock off Durkee in the third flight 3-6, 6-1, 6-3. Durkee, a senior, made his first varsity start as Nichols said the team continues to sort out the back half of its singles lineup.
"We're still trying to figure out who is going to fill that No. 3 role and who's going to fill that No. 4 role. We're doing some playoffs tomorrow and we're might see a slightly different lineup come Thursday and into the weekend," he said.
John Currie won for the Hodags at No. 2 singles, rolling past Carson Tegland, 6-1, 6-1. Gavin Denis was a 6-0, 6-0 winner over Jayson Wahlgren in the fourth flight.
"They're both really strong players and John is just so consistent," Nichols said. "He has a lot of shots he can used to up his game, just depending on his opponent's strengths and weaknesses. Gavin, he wasn't there for the first couple of days of tryouts. He's kind of a loose cannon in the lineup and we'll see where he ends up, but he's playing really well. He not only has shots, but his mindset is just so strong. He's an athlete in other sports and is just a very strong competitor."
The win kept Rhinelander (3-0, 38 pts.) 14 points head of Medford (2-0, 24 pts.) in the conference standings. Lakeland (2-2) also has 24 points.
Tuesday was supposed to be the second of back-to-back match days for the Hodags, but their GNC dual meet at Medford was postponed on Monday. Nichols said the team had just arrived in Medford Monday afternoon when a quick snow squall passed through, rendering the Raiders' courts unplayable.
"We made it all the way down there, but we were there maybe five minutes and drove back," he said "When you have a 5 o'clock start, if it's not good right then, you're probably going to either run out of daylight or the courts just will never dry in time."
The Rhinelander-Medford match had already been postponed once due to snow prior to Monday's setback. A makeup date had not been announced prior to press time for today's edition.
Weather may be a story again this weekend as the Hodags try to sneak in some of the last non-conference matches of the season. Rhinelander was scheduled to play at Antigo in GNC action yesterday and is slated to be in Wausau today and tomorrow for a non-conference invite.
"Looking at the weather, it's not looking great but, hopefully it will change and we'll get some matches in," Nichols said. "We have our last big tournament in Wausau. There are some good teams there that would be fun to play."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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