Sweeter by the dozen

In terms of dominating its peers in a single sport, the Rhinelander High School boys’ tennis team stands alone in the annals of the Great Northern Conference.

The Hodags put the finishing touches on a 12th consecutive conference title Thursday, May 21 winning the GNC meet at the RHS tennis courts. That’s the most ever in a row by any team in conference history, breaking the tie the Hodags had with Mosinee softball, which won 11 straight conference titles from 2009-2019.

Adding 44 season dual points to the 34 tallied at the GNC meet, the Hodags (78) outlasted second-place Medford (71) in the regular season’s final score.

“It feels good. I mean, yeah, there’s no doubt about it,” head coach Matt Nichols said. “It’s great to reach that accomplishment, obviously, was not just this one team, this one coaching staff. It was years in the making and there’s so many different players and coaches to thank for that.”

Since the streak started in 2014, the Hodag boys’ tennis team has seen three different GNC coaches of the year, including Nichols who won the award in 2023, 2024, and 2025. Longtime coach Bob Heideman led the conference titles in 2014 and 2016-2019. Mike Messerli, who took the reigns from Heideman for a season, guided the Hodags to victory in 2015.

The only thing that has paused the Hodags’ streak was the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the cancellation of the 2020 season.

“It was just a celebration of a lot of different coaches, a lot of different players all putting in a lot of time, energy, passion. So it’s really cool to be a part of the moment today, but, you know, it’s a celebration for the program as a whole,” Nichols added. 

    Rhinelander’s Asher Rivord serves in a finals match against Ashland’s Aidan Erickson during the GNC boys’ tennis meet Thursday, May 21 at the RHS tennis courts. Rivord won a 10-8 tiebreaker to take first place in the No. 1 singles flight, as well as earn conference singles player of the year honors. (Blake Richard/River News)
  

“I think we did what we had to do,” said Asher Rivord, the GNC singles player of the year. The junior won another thrilling tiebreaker over the strong serving arm of Ashland’s Aidan Erickson for the title at No. 1 singles. 

“Honestly, it’s just fun. It’s a fun group of guys, and it’s amazing to be a part of this team, and especially to win it again, and hopefully to keep it going,” Rivord added. 

In the final match, Rivord won set one against Erickson, 6-3, but fell 0-6 in the second, forcing a tiebreaker where Rivord made adjustments.  

“I wasn’t down on myself necessarily, in the second set,” he said. “I just knew that momentum wise, I needed to shift it towards the end of the second set, even if I lost. So it was more of a momentum rather than a physical or a mental change.”

Earlier this season, Rivord beat Erickson in a 10-4 tiebreaker, this time around, he beat Erickson, 10-8.

    Rhinelander’s Brayden Barnhill returns a hit in a finals match during the GNC boys’ tennis meet at the RHS tennis courts Thursday, May 21. Barnhill, along with No. 2 doubles teammate, Kellen O’Malley, defeated Marshall Czlapinski and Jayden Shepski of Lakeland 6-2 and 6-1 for first place in the tournament. (Blake Richard/River News)
  

Another close match, this time in the semifinals, came when the No. 2 doubles flight of Kellen O’Malley and Brayden Barnhill. The pair won an 11-9 tiebreaker just to make it to the final match. 

“After losing that second set (in the semifinals), I kind of realized, like, we got to dig deep here,” Barnhill said. 

“We knew that the second set we had, we just made a couple mistakes, so we knew that we could win it, and we just locked in and got it done,” O’Malley added. 

Barnhill and O’Malley won the final over Lakeland’s Marshall Czlapinski and Jayden Shepski 6-2 and 6-1 to add another six points to the Hodags’ total. 

Calvin Loomis ousted Blaine Searles from Medford to take the final in the No. 2 doubles flight. He won in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4. 

The No. 3 singles flight was one of the last to conclude on the day, due in part to Aidan Lueder forcing a tiebreaker against Medford’s Ethan Kollmansberger. Lueder won 7-6 (3), but fell in the second set 2-6. He was unable to get over the hump in the tiebreaker, losing 7-10. 

Mark Currie finished runner-up in the No. 4 singles flight, losing a tiebreaker in the final 9-11. 

In the final doubles’ flights, Danek Koniar and Henry Bonardelli faced the tough duo of Lakeland’s Andrew Colianni and Main Byram. They lost in straight sets 6-0 and 6-4. 

Medford took the No. 3 doubles final over Owen Evers and Roan Childs 6-3, 6-4. 

“Props to these guys,” Nichols said. “They worked really hard, they had a good start to the season, just got better and finished strong.”

Nichols explained that throughout the year, the team focused on the process more than the outcome, highlighting what it took to get to the final trophy hoist. 

“I think early on, you know, we just didn’t really talk much about conference it’s just kind of see where we’re at and just try to go out and play our best tennis. And that was, that’s the continued mindset. As we got towards the conference tourney, it was a little more explicit in our discussions about, you know, what we’re going for, where we’re at and then just focusing on the process rather than the outcome.”

At the end of this historic regular season, Nichols added that similar attributes will be the focus leading up to subsectionals today at Wausau West. 

“It’s kind of similar to a lot of what we did for conference,” he said. “Just focusing on the process, what is going to take us through those, some of those tougher matches. We will see a wide variety of teams, all of which are, you know, they have good flights and we’ll get pushed in all of them, but we can definitely compete and just focusing on what we control is what we are taking forward.”

Rivord said the Hodags have more left in the tank entering the postseason.

“We just gotta keep being a team. We just gotta keep coming out here and having fun and enjoy being around each other,” Rivord said. 

Blake Richard may be reached via email at [email protected].