Hodag tennis moves into first-place tie in GNC

The Rhinelander High School girls’ tennis team knew it faced a long climb back in the Great Northern Conference title race following a 5-2 loss to Wausau Newman early in the season. The Hodags have are now within sight of the summit as they look to win conference for the first time since 2022.

The Hodags swept doubles and claimed the bottom two singles flights Thursday as they defeated Lakeland 5-2 at the RHS tennis courts. 

That result, coupled with Pacelli’s 4-3 victory over Medford on Thursday, moved Rhinelander into a first-place tie in the standings with the Raiders entering the conference tournament. Meanwhile, the Hodags sit two points ahead of Wausau Newman, which defeated Marshfield Columbus 7-0 on Thursday. Pacelli is 16 points out of first, but could get to within two points pending the result of a make-up match against Lakeland today.

“These girls have worked so hard,” Hodag coach Matt Nichols said. “Whether we’re there at the top or just a little short, I mean, we’re in a good position. They worked really hard. They’ve earned a lot of really close and tight wins, and they’ve set themselves up well to have a really exciting opportunity at the conference crown when we get to the tourney.”

The Hodags knocked off last year’s conference champs to put themselves in position, though the T-Birds are not the powerhouse they were last year — having graduated nine seniors from that squad. Regardless, all seven flights were competitive. Even though all the matches were decided in straight sets with the majority of them, especially in singles, came down to a single break point. 

“We expected that. They’re a young team. They’ve, I’m sure, grown a lot. There’s usually a lot of, especially with young players, a lot of growth quick,” Nichols said. “It was fun. Competitive matches are fun to watch, fun to coach, and there was a lot of good tennis. We had a lot of good finishes in those wins.”

    Rhinelander’s Teagan Turcotte plays a point during a GNC girls’ tennis match against Lakeland at the RHS tennis courts Thursday, Sept. 18. Turcotte and teammate Maddie Legrey were straight-set winners for the Hodags at No. 1 doubles. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Rhinelander’s experienced doubles side led the way on Thursday. Teagan Turcotte and Maddie Legrey rolled to a 6-2, 6-2 win over Nora DeVries and Addison Trapp in the top flight; Eva Heck and Willow VanDenHeuvel were 6-2, 6-3 winners of McKenna Byrum and Olive Stockinger at No. 2; Willow Mutter and Addy Currie downed Carmen Istudor and Ellie Glisczinski 6-0, 6-3 in the final flight. 

For Rhinelander, a group with five seniors and one junior trumped a Lakeland doubles lineup that had two juniors and four freshmen.

“I mean, they’re a veteran squad at this point. Whether they were doubles or singles previous, they’ve played a lot of tennis, they’ve played a lot of doubles this season, they’ve grown a lot as partners and they’ve really grown,” Nichols said of his doubles pairings. “They showed off all the skills that they worked on, and came up with some big wins.” 

Taylor McKinney and Lucy Evers got needed points for the Hodags on the singles’ side of the lineup. McKinney held serve in the final game of the second set to stave off a tiebreaker as she beat Katy Janowiec 6-4, 7-5 at No. 3. Evers fended off Vella Walden 6-4, 6-3 in the fourth flight. 

Lakeland’s wins came in the top two singles flights. Sierra Wallace, the lone holdover from Lakeland’s conference title team last year, downed Annie Vander Galien 6-3, 6-3 at No. 1 singles while Maelle Lamers defeated Jordan Manske, 6-4, 6-4 at No. 2.

“Especially Nos. 3 and 4 singles, very tight matches,” Nichols said. “They were able to pull through. Nos. 1 and 2 singles, still some tight matches. They played well, just fell short today. But nothing that can’t be fixed moving forward.”

It all sets up for a wild conference tournament Thursday at the RHS tennis courts and the Hodag Dome where, legitimately, any one of four teams could walk away with the title.

Rhinelander has history on its side. Every single conference championship in both boys’ and girls’ tennis in GNC history has been won by the team leading the conference standings entering the conference tournament. Even in 2022, when the Hodags lost to Lakeland 5-2 at the beginning of the season, Rhinelander rallied back to lead the standings by four points entering the tournament and eventually won the title by five points over the T-Birds. 

However, there’s never been a conference title fight that has been this close with this many teams still realistically in the running. That will make every match critical on Thursday.

“There’s a very tight race, and the cool thing is our squad, both singles and doubles, they do play well under pressure,” Nichols said. “They go for the right shots. Most of the time they hit them, when they don’t, they keep going for it, and it earns them some big wins. And we can expect every single match moving forward through that conference tourney is going to be tight. It’s going to have some pressure — especially if they get through that first round, I mean, there’s not going to be an easy match with these top four teams all duking it out.”

Play is set to begin at 9 a.m. and will likely continue into the late afternoon or early evening. While it will be a long day, Nichols said if will be a matter of his team playing its game, winning as many matches as possible and letting the chips fall where they may.

“You know, there’s a couple little tweaks here and there strategically and fundamentally will definitely work on that practice,” he said. “We can integrate that into gameplay, but with the week left, there’s not a whole lot of tweaking, so we’ll focus on those minor things. We’ll think about mindset and we’re going to come ready to compete.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].