Hodag tennis knocks off Pacelli, gains ground in GNC

The Rhinelander High School girls’ tennis team handed a Great Northern Conference opponent its first dual meet loss of the conference season for the second time in as many meets on Tuesday.

The Hodags swept doubles and picked up a key win from freshman Lucy Evers at No. 4 singles to take a 4-3 victory over Pacelli in Stevens Point. 

The Cardinals, one of four teams jockeying to be in position for the conference title come the end of the month, came into the dual 3-0. The Hodags, who knocked off previously unbeaten Medford last Thursday, improved to 4-1 and remained right in the thick of the GNC race with the win.

“Big picture, (it’s) a win against a very quality opponent, someone shaping to be top contender for the crown,” Hodag coach Matt Nichols said. “We were able to show up, you know, 4-3, but a win’s a win. And, at this point, a win is what we needed. It was great to see the girls compete and earn that.”

All three doubles flights were competitive, with the Hodags’ upperclassmen-led squads eventually pulling away for straight-set wins. 

Seniors Teagan Turcotte and Maddie Legrey pulled away from Hailey Zvara and Vivian Berna 6-4, 6-3 in the top flight. Seniors Willow VanDenHeuvel and Eva Heck won 6-4, 6-2 over Maddy Pionk and Ella Tess at No. 2 and senior Willow Mutter and junior Addy Currie were 6-4, 6-2 winners over Alyssa Ladick and Isla Wojtalewicz at No. 3.

“I think serves and ground strokes definitely earned a lot of points consistently on the baseline,” Nichols said of the team’s doubles play on Tuesday. “Teagan at No. 1 doubles just lighting up the net with overhead after overhead. I think just playing a clean game, nothing fancy, but putting balls away that we needed to put away and keeping balls in play that we needed to keep in play.”

Evers cruised past Pacelli’s Abby Johnson 6-1, 6-2 for Rhinelander’s lone singles’ win. Sophomores Annie Vander Galien, Jordan Manske and Taylor McKinney combined for just five game victories in straight-set losses in the top three singles flights. 

Tuesday’s results did little to provide clarity to the GNC championship picture. Wausau Newman edged Medford 4-3 in a battle of the top two teams in the standings in Medford. The Raiders maintained a 14-point lead over Newman while Rhinelander moved to within 16 points of the Raiders. Medford has played one more conference dual than both Newman and Rhinelander and teams can earn up to 14 points in each dual meet. 

Pacelli, which has played two fewer matches than Medford, sits fourth — 24 points behind the Raiders and eight back of the Hodags. Pacelli has the fewest individual flight losses (7) in the conference. Lakeland moved into a fourth-place tie with Pacelli thanks to a 7-0 win over Marshfield Columbus on Tuesday, but has played one more match than Pacelli.

“With everyone being so close and two really close team scores, no one’s really pulling ahead and, honestly, kind of expected with where the teams are at,” Nichols said. “Us and Medford, we don’t have necessarily huge, huge runners at the top, but we have the depth and you see Newman and Pacelli with a very strong singles line, but they can’t put together certain flights. So it’s continuing to be up for grabs.”

The Hodags hosted Merrill for a key conference dual on Thursday that concluded after deadline. Rhinelander travels to Wausau West today and tomorrow for an invite and then will close out GNC dual meet play next week at Marshfield Columbus and home to Lakeland. 

Nichols said it’s key for the Hodags to earn maximum points in the remaining conference duals to set themselves up for a run at the GNC title later this month.

“We have to get every flight win. A 4-3 win over them is not going to be the same feeling as it is against Pacelli,” he said. “So we have to bring our A game. We got to bring the focus and we got to take care of business.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].