Hodag tennis cruises over Antigo in GNC opener

The Rhinelander High School girls’ tennis team breezed through its first Great Northern Conference test of the season on Thursday, earning a 7-0 victory at Antigo.

The Hodags won all seven matches in straight sets and had control of the match from the get go.

“We talked about just getting after every point,” Hodag coach Matt Nichols said. “It doesn’t matter (if you’re) up, down, if you have the momentum or if you’re losing the momentum, you just gotta play hard, and the girls went out there and they played hard and took care of business.”

Sophomore Annie Vander Galien picked up her first varsity win at No. 1 singles, cruising past senior Haliey Burhop 6-2, 6-1. Sophomore Jordan Manske had the closest match of the night, but got past Elyse Packard 6-3, 6-1 at the No. 2 flight. Taylor McKinney was a 6-1, 6-1 winner over Evie Lucht at No. 3 and freshman Lucy Evers completed the singles sweep with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Addison Burhop at No. 4.

“I think in the singles is just a lot of consistency, and that’s if we we’re struggling — going for too big of shots and we’re missing them — if we just fell back on the consistency they really worked on, we could out-rally our opponents,” Nichols said.

Rhinelander dropped just one game in the three doubles flights. The teams of Teagan Turcotte and Maddie Legrey, and Willow Mutter and Addy Currie were 6-0, 6-0 winners at the Nos. 1 and 3 flights, respectively. Junior Becca Brost stepped in for Eva Heck at No. 2 doubles and teamed with Willow VanDenHeuvel for a 6-1, 6-0 win over Lindsey Beck and Madalyn Wilhelm.

“Doubles, especially at No. 1 doubles, (had) great put away shots and that kind of trickled down into No. 2 doubles and No. 3 doubles as well,” Nichols said. “We were getting good touches at the net. Especially for like Willow Mutter, Teagan serves were on fire and we are using that as a weapon.”

While the Hodags had only one practice after the season-opening Bay Port Invite before playing Antigo, Nichols said the team put a number of the lessons they learned in the opener to good use. 

“It was tremendous to see. Thinking back to the scrimmage, where competition kind of started for the season and playing (Wausau) West, just a bunch of nerves led to some inconsistencies. We were tight. We weren’t hitting that well and at this point, a lot of the girls they start a little nervous first conference match, but eased into it pretty quickly,” Nichols said. “Some of the weaknesses I think we saw at Bay Port weren’t as evident, partly because we saw a weaker opponent, but also just even limited practice, the girls were able to pick up their game and lock in.”

The Hodags are back in action in the two-day Wausau West Invite, which concludes today and will then host Wausau Newman in GNC play Thursday at the RHS tennis courts. The Cardinals made an early case to be the team to beat in the GNC this year after knocking off defending conference champ Lakeland 5-2 on Thursday.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].