Team review: RHS girls’ tennis

A top-three finish in the conference standings, a winning record overall and six players earning all-conference honors would be considered a solid year for most girls’ tennis teams.

That those numbers, posted by the Rhinelander High School girls’ tennis team this fall, marked the worst the Hodags have done since joining the Great Northern Conference only underscores the dominance the Hodag tennis program has had since 2010.

The Hodags fell short of one of their main goals each season, that’s winning the GNC title. Dual meet losses to Wausau Newman and Lakeland put the Hodags behind the eight ball going into the conference tournament. Rhinelander’s third-place finish marked the first time it had not finished first or second since joining the GNC. The Hodags also failed to have an individual conference champion for the first time since joining the conference. 

“We didn’t do that but I think, as a team, we did what we could,” coach Matt Nichols said earlier this month at the team’s banquet about its goal of winning the conference title. “We did the best we could. We placed third and we were only three points behind Newman. We didn’t make it but we were very close and it was an awesome effort.”

Yet there were a number of positives for the Hodags this year, led by senior Tori Riopel’s march to the WIAA state meet. Rhinelander was 5-2 in GNC duals and 15-14 overall, while mainly playing Wisconsin Valley Conference and other Division 1 programs outside of GNC play.

Though Rhinelander returned a number of starters from a squad that rallied past Lakeland down the stretch last year to take the conference title, the few holes in the lineup — expected or otherwise — left the Hodags searching for answers much of the season. 

Those answers started to become clearer toward the end of the season and are something Nichols said the team can build on moving forward.

“There was a ton of growth and, in addition to the comments on sportsmanship, other coaches — the Newman coach included — complemented your skills and how much you progressed, especially players that they’ve seen play the last couple of years,” he said.

Here are five storylines from the recently completed season. 

Unexpected holes

    In this Oct. 2, 2023 file photo, Rhinelander’s Dawsyn Barkus hits a return during a match in a WIAA Division 1 subsectional at the RHS tennis courts. Barkus went 17-15 on the season after jumping up from the No. 4 single position as a sophomore in 2022. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Rhinelander exited 2022 thinking it would be in pretty strong shape for the following year, needing to replace only graduated seniors Taylor Riopel and Paige Oleinik from its doubles lineup. However, by the start of 2023, the holes became more significant. 

The Hodags took blow in the offseason while Taylor Riopel’s No. 1 doubles teammate from last year, Helena Wisner, transferred out of the district. The team received another setback when junior Kelsey Winter, who held down the No. 2 singles’ spot last year, tried to return but was unable to fully make her way back from a knee injury suffered during the basketball season back in January. 

That meant more shuffling in the lineup than the Hodags expected. Junior Dawsyn Barkus, cemented in the No. 4 singles spot last year, was pressed into duty at No. 2 singles. Rhinelander went by committee looking for a replacement at No. 4 singles before settling in on junior Maya Patrick by season’s end. 

Meanwhile everyone in doubles moved up. Kayla Tessmann moved from No. 2 to No. 1 and was joined by Karmen Lopez, who was a varsity reserve player a season ago. The team of Brooke Sisel and Evelyn Sawyer moved up from the No. 3 to No. 2 and the team rolled through a few combinations at No. 3 doubles before landing on Teagan Turcotte and Willow VanDenHeuvel. 

Key defeats

Despite the shuffled lineup, the Hodags were confident that a front-loaded non-conference schedule would give it plenty of time to settle in before the conference dual meets. 

That seemed to be true early on as the Hodags opened GNC play with a hard-fought 5-2 win over Pacelli in which it used a pair of three-set victories to swing the result in their favor. 

The Hodags found themselves on track in conference play, sitting at 3-0 heading into a key matchup against Wausau Newman Sept. 7. This time, however, the roles reversed as Rhinelander dropped matches at Nos. 2 and 3 doubles in which it held 4-1 third-set leads to fall to the Cardinals 4-3.

“In both of them we had what seemed like commanding leads after commanding the previous set. I think in both of them,” Nichols said after that match. “Newman’s strong. They played a very consistent game and just kept playing and it was working. We were kind of up and down and I don’t know if part of it was feeling some pressure, part of it maybe we were just tired. It’s hard to say, it kind of depends on the individual, but tough to lose that many in a row.”

That loss had Rhinelander playing catch up the rest of the way in conference. The Hodags got to the dual meet finale at Lakeland with a chance to vault into first in the GNC with a win of 5-2 or better, but instead lost that match 5-2. That result ultimately gave Lakeland enough cushion in the standings to secure its first conference title since 2009.

Riopel’s run

One constant in the Hodags’ lineup all season, and the last four years for that matter, was Tori Riopel. 

She vaulted to Rhinelander’s No. 1 singles spot at a junior and advanced to sectionals, falling one match short of the WIAA state tournament.

Riopel got another chance this year and made the most of it. 

The senior found herself locked in a tight battle with Eau Claire North’s Miah Nelson in the sectional quarterfinals. Needed a win to clinch a spot in the WIAA state tournament, Riopel won the first set, but lost the second and found herself down four points in the match tiebreaker on two separate occasions — at 1-5 and 5-9. 

Riopel not only fended off four straight match points, she finished with six straight points to stun Nelson 11-9 and punch her ticket to Madison. It was the culminating moment for Riopel, who went 24-13 overall on the season and finished as the runner-up in the GNC at No. 1 singles.

“It was pretty emotional seeing her qualify,” Nichols said. “I know that was one of her goals and I definitely had that goal for her. You think of all the time you put in and other players do the exact same thing and they just don’t get the opportunity, so it’s really cool to see all that work and effort, the blood, the tears, the sweat all pay off in that opportunity of getting to go to state.”

Riopel won another match at sectionals to take third in the No. 1 singles draw as she became Rhinelander’s first automatic state qualifier since the doubles team of Eva O’Melia and Maddie Barnes in 2015. Riopel faced a tough draw at state, however, falling to 2022 state runner-up Emily Pan of Muskego in the first round.

Riopel finished her career 73-24 overall in a Hodag uniform.

Statbook

Riopel’s 24 wins were the most on the team this season, followed closely by fellow senior Shayla Coppenger, who went 22-12 and was the conference runner-up at No. 3 singles. Barkus went 17-15 at No. 2 singles and Patrick went 7-15 in singles play this year, with all but one of those matches coming in the No. 4 flight. 

In doubles, Tessmann and Lopez complied a 13-18 record together and a fourth-place finish in the GNC. Sisel and Sawyer went 14-15 at No. 2 doubles while Turcotte and VanDenHeuvel were 8-10 together at No. 3 doubles. Both Rhinelander’s No. 2 and 3 doubles teams wound up third in the GNC tournament, winning match tiebreakers on tournament day to help secure all-conference honors.

What’s next

Rhinelander enters the offseason knowing that once again it will not have many holes to fill in the lineup, but the players who they will have to replace are significant. The team graduates Riopel from No. 1 singles, Coppenger from No. 3 singles and Tessmann from No. 1 doubles. 

The Hodags have varsity reserve players who are ready to step up and challenge for spots. Freshmen Sam Aschenbrenner and Becca Brost made spot starts at No. 4 singles this year while sophomores Maddie Legrey and Willow Mutter filled in a couple of matches at No. 3 doubles. Plus a healthy Winter should help the Hodags wherever she fits in the lineup after going 14-15 in 2022.

However next year’s lineup shakes out, with Lakeland set to return eight starters from this year’s GNC-champion squad and several other teams showing promise with underclassmen this year, the Hodags know there’s plenty of work to do if they want to get back to the perennial perch atop the conference.

“Those top teams, they put in work in the offseason and it’s cool to see,” Nichols said following the conference meet. “A competitive conference is a fun conference. It’s nice working for that. We see where we’re at. We see where the other teams are at and we’ll definitely have conversations about it, but I think these girls are ready to put in some time in the offseason and get back on top.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].