Team preview: RHS boys’ tennis

The Rhinelander High School boys’ tennis team has had plenty of success in coach Matt Nichols’ first three seasons at the helm. Last year the Hodags captured their ninth straight conference title, went 17-6 overall in dual meets and finished third at WIAA sectionals.

With six starters returning from that squad, and a bevy of seniors on the roster, the Hodags expect to be strong again as they look to duplicate or exceed last year’s success. 

The biggest question, heading into Tuesday’s opener against new Great Northern Conference foe Ashland, is just exactly who will play in which spot.

The team has been busy this week trying to sort out those answers through a series of challenge matches. One thing is certain, Nichols said he has plenty of options.

“I feel like we’re in a good position, not because we know where things are shuffling out but because there are a lot of people we’re looking at that could fill the roles,” he said. “It’s a competitive team. We have depth. It’s good from that regard.”

Rhinelander returns all four of its starting singles players from last year in seniors Dalton Fritz, John Currie, Gavin Denis and Nick Lesch. It’s not as simple as plugging and playing them back into their roles from last year, however. 

That’s because Rhinelander has plenty of holes to fill on the doubles side. They graduated Layne Roeser who, with now senior teammate Joey Belanger, advanced to the second round of the WIAA state tournament last June. The Hodags also graduated their No. 2 doubles team of Charlie Heck and Leo Losch, along with Eli Lundt from its No. 3 doubles pairing with senior Dawson Pontell.

    In this April 28, 2023 file photo, Rhinelander’s Joey Belanger eyes up an overhead smash during a non-conference boys’ tennis match against Marshfield in Wausau Friday, April 28. Belanger, a senior, reached the WIAA Division 1 state doubles tournament with playing partner Layne Roeser last spring. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Belanger and Roeser were conference players of the year in doubles last year, going 24-4 as a tandem and winning the conference title at No. 1 doubles. While not yet cast in stone, Nichols said earlier this week the plan going into the season is to replace once conference player of the year with another and pair Fritz, last year’s GNC No. 1 singles champ, with Belanger in the top doubles flight.

Fritz was 12-13 and qualified for sectionals last year at No. 1 singles.

“Dalton and Joey, both good players,” Nichols said. “Joey obviously went to state last year, second round. Then Dalton, I think he brings a really consistent game, great groundstrokes, good serve. We’ll really work his volleys. They already know each other. They get along well.”

With Fritz presumptively moving to doubles, that opens the door for Currie to move up to the top spot in the singles lineup. He went 18-7 a season ago, mainly playing at No. 2 singles, where he won a conference title. Currie did get a taste of No. 1 singles last year, subbing in for Fritz during a three-match day and beating GNC No. 1 singles runner-up Brayden Balciar of Medford in a tiebreaker 3-6, 6-1, 13-11.

“John is coming in strong,” Nichols said. “Him and Dalton were so close last year and he’s coming in stronger than last year. I think that that position will just be stronger as we move forward. Results wise, he beat the conference runner-up (at No. 1 singles). He was already there last year. Assuming he takes that spot, he’ll play there, he’ll be successful and it will be an easy transition for the team and him.”

Nichols said Denis, who went 10-11 at No. 3 singles last year, will likely stay on that side of the lineup while Pontell, who was 21-4 with Lundt at No. 3 doubles, will likely stay in doubles. The biggest variable, according to Nichols, is who will end up partnering with Pontell this year. That could be Lesch, who was 14-9 at No. 4 singles last year, or a host of players vying to crack into the varsity lineup.

“Dawson I see as a doubles player. It’s really who is he going to play with. We tried him at singles last year and his game is just stronger at doubles,” Nichols said. “Nick is kind of in that swing where he could go singles, he could go doubles. Gavin, when we look at the roster and the team needs, he’s penciled in on the singles side of things to keep some strength there. He’s definitely improved a lot where he could play as high as No. 2 singles and have a good season.”

As for the remaining four spots in the starting lineup, Nichols said there could be as many as nine players jockeying for those positions. Of those nine, senior Zacha King and juniors Karter Massey and Payton McCue all got a taste of varsity a year ago. Massey went 3-0 while McCue was 2-0, all at No. 3 doubles. King split the two matches he played at No. 4 singles. 

Nichols said all that depth could come in handy, considering the team has four multi-day tournaments on the schedule this spring.

“That could afford us the opportunity to not only get people some experience but, when we’re at these tourneys you play six matches in two days,” he said. “You can sit someone, give them a break and we have the depth to do it, they can get experience, we can keep our (starting) guys fresh. It’s a great.”

In terms of the conference, while Rhinelander is the likely favorite, Medford and Lakeland return most all of their lineups in tact after taking second and third in the conference last year. Lakeland only graduated one player, Axle Jacobs, from its No. 1 doubles spot while Medford returns everyone except its No. 2 and 4 singles players. 

“Both teams are going to be competitive,” Nichols said. “Lakeland’s a big team. (Lakeland coach) Ted (Dasler) was saying they have 25 guys. Usually higher numbers would suggest you’re going to have some talent in there. Medford’s returning a good, strong roster. It will be fun. It will make for a competitive conference.”

The unknown variable is the new sixth team in the conference, Ashland. The Oredockers played an independent schedule last year, going 4-7 overall. Ashland played Medford and Lakeland five times last year, going 2-3 with all five matches being split, 4-3.

While Nichols said adding Ashland makes the conference more competitive, it also frees up the schedule to pick up three more non-conference matches, as the GNC switches to a single round-robin format for dual meet play this year. 

“We go from a double round-robin to a single, which opened up a lot of opportunities to play other teams in the D1 side of things in the state. We have more duals with these bigger schools, which will help us, I think, in the long run,” he said.

As long as Rhinelander remains in Division 1, like it does this year, getting those matchups against D1 schools will be key for postseason seeding. Rhinelander will host a seven-team subsectional next month in which it will see all six schools from the Wisconsin Valley Conference. The Hodags will likely face all six either in individual duals or in tournaments during the course of the regular season, and Nichols said he expects his squad to more than hold its own against the Valley.

“I think we’ll be vying for the top spot in the sub. SPASH (Stevens Point), I saw, lost a lot of guys,” he said. “I haven’t looked as much at the other teams, but I think we’ll be very comparable, and I think we’ll be fighting for one of those top spots.”

“I think we’re all shooting for a conference championship. That’s kind of the big goal. Then I personally would love to see seven out of seven flights through on to sectionals. We did that a couple of years ago. We were just short last year, but I think, with this team and the sub the way it looks, it’s very doable.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].

Date    Opponent/Event    Time

4/9    ASHLAND*    4:30 p.m.

4/12    Wausau West Invite    4 p.m.

4/13    Wausau West Invite    8:30 a.m.

4/16    at Lakeland*    5 p.m.

4/19    De Pere Invite    10 a.m.

4/20    De Pere Invite    9 a.m.

4/23    at Wausau West    4:30 p.m.

4/25    at Antigo*    5 p.m.

4/26    Wausau West Invite    Noon

4/26    Wausau West Invite     9 a.m.

4/30    STEVENS POINT    4:30 p.m.

5/2    PACELLI*    5 p.m.

5/3    at Wis. Rapids    4 p.m.

5/7    at Medford*    5 p.m.

5/10    Sheboygan North Invite    9 a.m.

5/11    Sheboygan North Invite    9 a.m.

5/14    MARSHFIELD    5 p.m.

5/16    GNC MEET at RHS*    9 a.m.

5/20    D1 SUBSECTIONAL     9 a.m.

5/22    D1 Sectionals    9 a.m.

Conference meets | HOME MEETS IN CAPS