Hodag tennis wins final three matches in De Pere

Despite a long weekend and some tough competition, the Rhinelander High School boys’ tennis team emerged from the De Pere Invite with a winning record.

After dropping its first two matches, the Hodags won their final three to finish the weekend 3-2 playing mainly against teams from the Green Bay area.

The Hodags started with a 7-0 loss against Mukwonago on Friday morning, followed by a 6-1 loss to De Pere. Rhinelander ended Friday’s play with a 4-3 win over Pulaski and won both of its matches Saturday — defeating West De Pere 4-3 and Ashwaubenon 7-0.

Overall, it was a competitive weekend for doubles as the Hodags went a combined 10-5 in those matches, compared to 6-14 in singles. 

“Doubles, we were looking to get pushed,” Nichols said. “Across the board we were pushed but those doubles, I think competed really well.”

Joey Belanger and Dalton Fritz were a pair of match tiebreakers away from going undefeated on the weekend. After taking the first set from Mukwonago’s Nate Christensen and Tommy Nettesheim 6-2, the Hodag pair dropped the second 6-3 and then the match tiebreaker 10-7.

Belanger and Fritz rallied to a 6-2 win in the second set over De Pere’s Sam Cuimcek and Joseph Schneider after dropping the first in a tiebreaker. The Hodag tandem came up short in a marathon match tiebreaker, 19-17.

“It was great learning for them,” Nichols said. “Obviously, we would have liked to have ended up on top, but this is exactly what we needed — to get pushed by some quality teams, help us identify some weaknesses, work on different strategies. These are the matches that are really going to help us prep for subs, sectionals and, hopefully, state. These are quality teams that if we want a long run, we’ve got to start playing with them and get used to that level of play.”

Belanger and Fritz won their other three matches in straight sets. It was a similar story for Gavin Denis and Dawson Pontell at No. 2 doubles. They fell in straight sets to Mukwonago and De Pere before winning their final three matches of the weekend. 

Statistically, Rhinelander’s best flight was No. 3 doubles. Aiden Ostermann and Michael Schiek scored the Hodags’ lone win against De Pere, a 7-5, 5-7, 10-5 match tiebreaker win over Riley Tomlinson and Colin Walczak. The two also had a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (1) win Saturday morning over Avi Gupta and Arya Kadam that helped to clinch the dual against West De Pere. Karter Massey and Van Tulowitzky also saw some time at the flight and went 4-1 on the weekend. 

“No. 3 doubles had a great weekend as a flight,” Nichols said. “We jumbled some players around but No. 3 doubles getting the lone win over De Pere and then they had a two-set tiebreaks win over West De Pere this morning, which helped clinch the 4-3 victory. The doubles, I think, played really well, a lot of tight matches. We lost some, won some, but I think it was a great experience for all three of those flights.” 

John Currie had the best weekend on the singles side of the ledger, going 3-2. That included a 7-6 (5), 2-6, 13-11 win over West De Pere’s Race Zifferblatt. The rest of the singles lineup was shut out of the win column until Saturday’s sweep over Ashwaubenon.

Nick Lesch, Payton McCue and Calvin Loomis rounded out the singles lineup against Ashwaubenon. Lesch and McCue played all five matches at Nos. 2 and 3 singles, respectively, while Loomis split time with Zacha King at No. 4.

“I think it was great, especially the 7-0 over Ashwaubenon. Our singles, not quite as strong of a showing this weekend, but everyone got a win there and that’s huge confidence. Leaving a hard tourney, sometimes you can get down on yourself. Even if you’re playing good opponents, it’s never fun to lose, but that win over Ashwaubenon was great for the guys, mentally.”

Generally one of the tougher events on the Hodags’ schedule, Nichols said there was plenty of opportunity to learn and grow from a competitive weekend of tennis. 

“Singles, we did a really nice job with our consistency. Now that we have that and we’ve gotten stronger pace we have some stuff to work on with the placement of shots, maybe some shot sequencing,” he said. “Doubles, I thought we did an excellent job in rally and out. It’s just fine-tuning those finishing shots. I think we were great with the rally and capitalizing on some errors from our opponents will help us in the future.”

The Hodags (8-3, 2-0 Great Northern) are back in action today as they travel to Wausau West for a non-conference dual. Rhinelander will then hop back into conference play at Antigo on Thursday before returning to Wausau for another multi-dual invite Friday and Saturday.

“It’s going to be a fun week, a mix of conference, subs (opponents),” Nichols said. “We’ll probably end up seeing Marshfield and, looking beyond subs, Menomonie is looking like the team to beat for the section and they’re signed up from the West tourney this weekend. Hopefully we can take a crack at them.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].