Hodag tennis drops regular season finale to Rapids

The Rhinelander High School girls’ tennis team lost Tuesday in its final match of the regular season, dropping a non-conference dual at Wisconsin Rapids 5-2.

Rhinelander took one match each in singles and doubles play against the Wisconsin Valley Conference and subsectional opponent. Maddie Legrey won in straight sets at No. 3 singles while the No. 2 doubles team of Maya Patrick and Evelyn Sawyer bounced back from a second-set loss to win a match tiebreaker.

Tuesday’s dual served as one final data point and opportunity for the Hodags to improve their seeding for when WIAA postseason play commences this  Monday with a D1 subsectional at home.

“Rapids is doing well in the Valley Conference and we knew it was going to be a tough match,” Hodag coach Matt Nichols said. “Obviously important for seeding come Monday and I think those two wins are nice. The No. 3 singles is not who I would expect to see for Rapids on Monday, but that No. 2 doubles team is and it was nice for them to seal the deal there.”

Patrick and Sawyer took the final three games of the opening set against Rapids’ Annabell Ross and Sierra Dillingham to win it 6-4 but then struggled to a 6-1 loss in the second set, forcing a match tiebreaker. The Hodag pair commanded the tiebreaker and won, 10-6. 

“There was really good net play, a lot of smart plays across the net, consistent ground strokes, serves were on (in the first set),” Nichols said. “The second set, we kind of saw the opposite and in that tiebreak they really just pushed through. We had some confident serves, some big unanswered serves, which was huge. We had controlled groundstroke returns, which made a difference in getting the point started. I think it really just came down to those serves and just keeping the ball in play. We saw errors on the other side and then just forced errors from our serves. It was a nice win for the No. 2 doubles team.”

Legrey was a 6-1, 6-1 winner over freshman Kayvanna Lor, who was playing only her fifth singles match of the season. Sydney Holberg is expected to be Rapids’ entry at No. 3 singles for subsections, as she sits 15-1 overall on the year. 

Rapids rolled in the other singles flights. Kelsey Winter lost to Rapids’ Hayley Jensen 6-2, 6-3 in the top flight, Karmen Lopez fell 6-1, 6-0 to Abbey Gust at No. 3 and Sam Aschenbrenner was defeated by Lily Wesolek 6-3, 6-3 at No. 4. 

“I think their singles line was very consistent, as with any good singles player, they kept the ball in play, kept it deep and just got a lot of balls back,” Nichols said. “I think net play, across the board, not only doubles but the singles players from Rapids were not afraid to approach the net and put away balls from there. That proved to be a challenge for our line.”

Dawsyn Barkus and Brooke Sisel fell to Rapids’ Jenna Wentland and Julia Krueger 6-4, 6-1 at No. 1 doubles while Eva Heck and Willow VanDenHeuvel lost to Allison Stultz and Stella Kuhn 6-3, 6-1 at the third flight. 

Rhinelander finished regular season play with a 13-17 record and 3-4 in the Great Northern Conference. The Hodags expect to slot in somewhere in the middle of the draw for Monday’s subsectionals, which includes the entire Wisconsin Valley Conference plus Medford from the GNC. Rhinelander lost to the current top three teams in the WVC and beat the bottom three teams while not facing fourth-place Stevens Point during the season. 

That will likely make things difficult on Monday in terms of advancing. The top four advance out of the No. 1 singles and doubles flights to next Wednesday’s sectional round in Eau Claire, along with the top two in all other flights.

“It’s going to be tough. There’s a lot of improvement but if you faced with the top teams right away, it makes it challenging to move on,” Nichols said. “Hopefully everyone can end saying they played their best tennis possible, they played (with) 100% of their effort and, if we can do that at this point, win or lose, we can close out the season on a positive note.”

Nichols noted the Hodags will have two factors on their side Monday — a lack of pressure coming into the matches as an underdog in most, if not all, flights and home court advantage with matches contested at the RHS tennis courts and the Hodag Dome.

“Playing on their home court, especially for these seniors who could be their last time in a high school match, I think that’s kind of cool,” Nichols said.

Subsectional play is slated to get underway at 9:30 a.m. Monday. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].