September 22, 2023 at 6:02 a.m.
MINOCQUA — Barring a miracle, the Rhinelander High School girls’ tennis team’s run of dominance in the Great Northern Conference was set to come to an end Thursday.
The Hodags found themselves in the near-impossible position of needing to make up 10 points in the tournament following a 5-2 loss to Lakeland Tuesday in Minocqua.
Rhinelander came into the match following a 6-1 win over Marshfield Columbus on Monday, and could have taken the conference lead with a 5-2 win over the T-Birds. But the scoreline was reversed against an undefeated Lakeland squad and the Hodags found themselves looking up at both the T-Birds and Wausau Newman as the conference tournament took place Thursday, after press time for today’s edition.
The loss effectively ended Rhinelander’s bid for a 12th conference title in 14 years and put the Hodags in the precarious position of potentially ending the season with their worst overall finish in the conference since joining the GNC in 2010.
“We kind of knew that coming into it, how any of these matches could swing either way,” coach Matt Nichols said. “We had some close rallies, close set scores and it really could have (swung our way). We just ended up on the bottom, which sucks.”
To even have a chance, the Hodags knew they would have to knock off at least one of Lakeland’s three doubles teams, all of which came into the dual undefeated in conference play.
Despite a couple of close calls, that didn’t happen.
Rhinelander’s No. 1 doubles team of Kayla Tessmann and Karmen Lopez was up a break 3-2 early in the first set, but lost their serve in both the sixth and the 10th games as the fell 6-4 to the Lakeland pair of Kristina Ouimette and Savannah Barton. Lakeland broke serve again to go up 4-2 in the second set and went on to a 6-3 win.
At No. 2 doubles, the Rhinelander team of Evelyn Sawyer and Brooke Sisel rallied from down 0-5 in the first set to force a tiebreaker, but never got a lead there, falling 7-4. The team of Ali Timmerman and Charley Cleveland pulled away to a 6-3 win in the second set.
“We had opportunities and just couldn’t close on them,” Nichols said. “We were up 3-2 and then dropped to 3-4 and, from there, we just couldn’t catch up. Same with No. 2 doubles. They were right there, set tiebreak that first set. So many games were close. We’ve just got to find a way to close on them.”
Things did not go much better at No. 3 doubles where Teagan Turcotte and Willow VanDenHeuvel were swept 6-2, 6-2 by Lila Biller and Alyssa Erickson. Dawsyn Barkus lost 6-1, 6-2 to Norah Strasburg at No. 2 singles and Maya Patrick fell 7-5, 6-1 at No. 4 to Ellie Baker.
Tori Riopel put herself in position to secure the second seed in the conference tournament at the No. 1 singles flight with a convincing 6-2, 6-1 win over Lakeland’s Sarah Barton in a match of two players with only one conference loss. That came on the heels of a 6-3, 0-6, 6-3 win over Marshfield Columbus’ Akosua Yeboah on Monday.
“That No. 1 spot is just competitive,” Nichols said. Even Columbus, which wasn’t quite as strong as a full team, but that No. 1 spot (was strong). Then today, Sarah’s only loss before today was to Pacelli, so that was a nice, decisive win for her.
“When she’s on, she has really nice finishing shots. She can really capitalize on weaker second serves and those points can end right there. But she also has the hustle and she can hold a rally and develop a point to the point where she can just finish them off.”
Shayla Coppenger controlled Lakeland’s Elise Lamers and rolled to a 6-2, 6-0 win at the No. 3 singles flight on Tuesday as she finished conference dual meet play 7-0 at the flight.
“You look at Shayla, she’s beat everyone in the conference. She hasn’t even gone to a third set. She’s had close ones, but a very decisive regular season for her,” Nichols said. “She’s just consistent. She had a great shot variety with her top, her slice, just all-around a very solid game. She’s got very good hustle and very good vision on the court, where the ball is and where she needs to get to.”
On Monday, the Hodags swept doubles, dropping a combined three games between the three flights. In addition to Riopel’s three-set win over Yeboah, Coppenger and Patrick won on the singles side, with Patrick rallying from a large second-set deficit to earn a straight-set win over Callie Hanson.
“That was a really nice win for Maya,” Nichols noted. “She was down I think 5-1 in the second set and she came back and rallied 7-5. That’s really nice to see on her side. Part of that is consistency, which is a huge part of any tennis game.”
Lakeland entered the conference tournament with 76 points after a 7-0 dual meet season, Wausau Newman (6-1) was second with 70 points followed by Rhinelander (5-2) with 66 points. With a conference title likely out of the equation, Nichols said the goal entering Thursday’s meet was to do as well as possible in each flight and potentially play spoiler in the conference race.
“For the whole season it’s really challenging, numbers wise, but I think we can look at individual flights,” Nichols said. “We are obviously working toward team goals here, but I think it kind of frees up each flight. They can really just focus on their day, making the best of their play and trying to win that bracket and then just playing the best tennis possible. We’re at the end of the season, they’ve worked hard and just showcase it throughout the day.”
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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