Close losses costs Hodag tennis in GNC race

A battle between two of the top teams in the Great Northern Conference was ultimately decided by a trio of three-set matches Thursday.

The Hodags had a chance to win all three, but came way with only one and now face an uphill climb to defend their conference title. 

Wausau Newman rallied to win three-setters at Nos. 2 and 3 doubles, which proved to be the difference in a 4-3 decision at the RHS tennis courts. 

The Hodags, who fell eight points behind Newman and Lakeland for first in the GNC, will rue a potential eight-point swing against the Cardinals. The Hodags held 4-1 third-set leads at both Nos. 2 and 3 doubles, and came away from those matches empty-handed. 

“It was a nail-biter. It could have easily been a 5-2 win but it came out as a 4-3 loss,” Nichols said. “We saw something similar against Pacelli. It sucks to be on the opposite end of it.”

Leading 4-1 in the third set, the No. 3 doubles team of Willow VanDenHeuvel and Maya Patrick dropped four straight games to fall behind 5-4 to Newman’s Aubry Puent and Abby Hynes. They broke serve to stave off match point in the 10th game and again in the 12th to force a match-deciding tiebreaker. The Hodag tandem jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the tiebreaker but then dropped five straight points — including two on double faults — to lose the match. 

It was a similar story for Evelyn Sawyer and Brooke Sisel at No. 2 doubles as they watched a 4-1 lead in the third slip away. Addison Puent and Naomi Stenstrom rolled off five straight games from there to take the set, 6-4 and clinch the dual.

In both cases the Hodags had rallied from down a set to force a third. Sawyer and Sisel split their first two sets 3-6, 6-3 while Patrick and VanDenHeuvel rallied form a 6-1 loss in the first set to take the second 6-4.

“In both of them we had what seemed like commanding leads after commanding the previous set. I think in both of them,” Nichols said. “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.”

Nichols agreed when asked if the dual ultimately boiled down to too many unforced errors for the Hodags. “Yeah, I would say that,” he replied. 

Though disappointed, he chalked up the losses to a learning experience. 

“We were in competitive matches. We played well but it’s just practicing that mental game and persevering through and playing your best tennis under pressure,” he said. “Just like our strokes, we need to practice that. As long as we can grow from this, we should be stronger by conference.”

Rhinelander did get clutch performances by three of its seniors in wins on Thursday. 

Tori Riopel took care of Reagan Herdrich 6-3, 6-3 in the top flight.

“She played phenomenal (against a) good competitor,” Nichols said. “Just a lot of good rallies and she wasn’t just getting the ball back, she had great defensive plays, but she was also putting shots away. It was the best tennis I’ve seen her ever play.” 

Shayla Coppenger fended off Evelyn Herdrich 6-1, 7-6 (5) at No. 3 singles.  

“She commanded that first set and, across the board Newman just keeps competing. We were pushed that second set. Shayla’s a competitor. She was able to close it out,” Nichols said.

Kayla Tessmann teamed with Karmen Lopez to edge Ava Sukanen and Moley Merrill 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 at No. 1 doubles. 

“That was a big win. Each set was pretty close and we closed when we needed to. That team, if we left the door open, they would have walked right through,” Nichols said. 

Dawsyn Barkus lost to Addie Schmidt 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2 doubles. Freshman Sam Aschenbrenner could not hold on to a 4-1 advantage in the second set as she fell to Olivia Fox 7-5, 6-4 at No. 4 singles.

Wausau Invite

The Hodags got right back into action Friday and Saturday with their final multi-day invite of the season. Rhinelander went 3-2 in Wausau, splitting its matches on Friday before going 2-1 on Saturday. 

Rhinelander started the tournament with a 5-2 win over D.C. Everest but then lost to Menomonie 5-2. On Saturday the Hodags opened with a 7-0 loss to Wausau West, but then beat Medford 4-3 for the second time in five days before closing out the event with a 6-1 win over Merrill.

Nichols said it was good to jump right back into playing after Thursday’s disappointing loss, and said he saw some improvement in the weekend matches. 

“There was a lot of improved consistency and I’d say finishing shots in singles was something we worked on. We’ve done a nice job of hitting with depth and then just developing points and finishing rallies,” he said. “Doubles, we have nice serves. I think that was a strength. We need to continue working on our positioning and our net play, just being aggressive up at the net.”

Barkus had the best weekend for Rhinelander, going 4-1 in her five matches, that included straight-set wins at No. 2 singles against subsectional opponents D.C. Everest and Medford. Riopel and Coppenger went 3-2 on the weekend as did Patrick, who shifted back over to singles after playing at No. 3 doubles the last few matches. Patrick split her matches at No. 4 singles and picked up a win at No. 3 singles against Merrill.

The Hodags used the matchup against the Bluejays to alter the lineup significantly. Riopel and Coppenger played at No. 1 doubles in that match and cruised to a 6-0, 6-0 win over Merrill’s Sarah Well and Chloe Belant. Barkus moved to No. 2 doubles with Sawyer and the two prevailed 6-0, 6-1 over Johanna Dahlke and Jenna Malluege. 

Meanwhile, Rhinelander’s normal No. 1 doubles team moved to singles. Lopez picked up a 6-1, 6-0 win over Kaytlyn Hulke at No. 2 singles while Tessmann had the Hodags’ lone loss, a 6-2, 6-2 defeat to Lauren Belsky in the top flight. 

“We played Merrill earlier so we have that comparable already, so it was a fun way to end our multi-day tournaments, just mixing everything around and giving everyone a new look at their tennis game,” Nichols said. “We practiced some new things, doubles moving to singles and singles to doubles, there’s different things to focus on and they can take that back into whatever position they go back to.”

Up next

The Hodags travel to Marshfield Columbus this afternoon and will host Antigo in GNC play on Thursday.

Those will be key matches as Rhinelander looks to keep pace with Lakeland and Newman in the conference standings. The Hodags have a dual at Lakeland next Tuesday and have the memory of rallying from an early season 6-1 loss to the T-Birds to still claim the conference title.

“We looked at conference points. It’s a huge week,” Nichols said. “We’re behind Lakeland, so anything we can do to make up points this week is going to be huge and then, obviously, that dual right before conference has inherently just a lot of pressure on it.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].