Hodag netters go winless in Point

The Rhinelander High School boys’ tennis team fell from the ranks of the unbeaten over the weekend while facing some strong Division 1 competition in Stevens Point.

The Hodags lost their lone match Friday in the SPASH Super Invite, falling to Oshkosh North, 6-1. Rhinelander dropped all three of its matches on Saturday, falling to 7-0 to Mukwonago, 4-3 to Pulaski and 5-2 to De Pere.

Morning rainfall shortened Friday’s play from three matches down to one, but coach Matt Nichols said the tournament still served as valuable experience for his team.

“That’s what we’re looking for. Obviously, would be nice if the weather worked out a little better, but today was beautiful,” he said. “It’s great to see some high-quality teams. We got bigger servers. We got faster-paced balls, a wide variety of strategies.”

Rhinelander played around with its lineup in three of the four matches, moving some of its singles starters to doubles and vice versa. The Hodags picked up only one win with players playing out of their usual positions. That came Friday as seniors Payton McCue and Karter Massey scored a 7-5, 6-2 win at No. 2 doubles over Payton Rockteschel and Quasi Alqawasmi, but Nichols said there were benefits to shifting the lineup.

“We shifted the lineup a little bit with some different ideas in mind but also just player growth,” he said. “That’s a huge emphasis of this tourney, and really at any point, but this one there’s not a lot of stakes. So kids can play a little more relaxed, play a little loose, try new things and I think that was a big takeaway and highlight, just a growth over the weekend.”

In particular, Nichols said pairing McCue and Massey, typically the Hodags’ Nos. 1 and 2 singles players, together at doubles leaves the door open for the two to possibly shift to that side of the lineup for the postseason, should that be something the team wants to pursue.

“Part of this was getting them a couple matches to their minimum of six together so that they can play together postseason.”

The closest Rhinelander came to a team win was against Pulaski, with the dual ultimately being decided by a match tiebreaker at No. 3 doubles. Junior Danek Koniar and sophomore Brayden Barnhill fell in a tight match there as the Raiders’ Conrad Kruetzberg and Jakob Malchow rallied for a 4-6, 7-6 (5), 11-9 win.

“It was close and I think the guys played well,” Nichols said. “It’s fun to see that, at least in the tiebreak, it was very close but ultimately they lost. We reflected on that. We’ve had the exact opposite that happened where we were the winning team in that, and obviously it goes both ways. Hopefully, we’ll get them if we play them again — which we might at the Wausau tourney, but it’s a learning experience. So, from that perspective, we can move forward on a positive note.”

Sophomore Asher Rivord went 2-2 on the weekend, scoring a 7-6 (5), 6-4 win over Pulaski’s Jonah Drevs and a 6-4, 6-4 win over De Pere’s Conor Enright, both at No. 4 singles. Seniors Hart Hokens and Van Tulowitzky also picked up a pair of wins at No. 2 doubles on Saturday, winning 6-2, 6-2 over Pulaski and 3-6, 6-1, 10-6 over De Pere. That came after the two were shifted to Nos. 1 and 2 singles in a match against Mukwonago, and played Nos. 3 and 4 singles against Oshkosh North.

“I think that singles play, just getting extra reps especially from the baseline, really helped their groundstroke game,” Nichols noted. “They had a nice weekend putting together some doubles matches following that.”

Seniors Aiden Ostermann and Michael Schiek went 1-2 on the weekend at No. 1 doubles, earning a 6-3, 6-1 win over Pulaski. They dropped a match tiebreaker 3-6, 6-4, 10-3 to Oshkosh North on Friday.

Rhinelander returns to action at home this afternoon against D.C. Everest in a the make-up of a match that was originally scheduled for April 8. Though non-conference, the match will carry some significant weight, considering that the Evergreens are one of the opponents in Rhinelander’s subsectional for the WIAA tournament.

“It’s going to be a pretty critical match when we look at postseason so we’re looking forward to it,” Nichols said. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].