Second-place Raiders look forward to challenging Hodags

The Medford Raiders should lock up second place when the dual-meet portion of the Great Northern Conference boys tennis schedule wraps up next week.

How close they can get to first place will depend on how many matches they can win against Rhinelander when the Hodags visit Medford on Tuesday.

The Raiders boosted their GNC points total to 62 on Monday with their second 6-1 win over Stevens Point Pacelli within a week. The win put the Raiders at 5-1 in the GNC and 9-1 overall, marks the program hasn’t seen in several years, and will add to that win total today, Thursday, when they visit a depleted Lakeland team.

Undefeated Rhinelander (5-0, 12-0) has 66 points heading into a home meet with Pacelli today. The Hodags also visit Antigo on June 3 before hosting the seasonending GNC tournament on Friday, June 4.

On May 18, Medford swept the doubles matches against Pacelli, but on Monday it was the singles players’ turn to pull off a sweep in Stevens Point.

In the top flight, Medford’s Logan Searles had to go the distance in his rematch with Charlie Kulick, who won the first set in a tiebreaker 7-6 (5). Searles, who took the May 18 match in straight sets, came back and fought off Kulick 6-3, 7-5 in the next two sets to improve to 7-2 for the year.

At number-two, Quinton Tlusty, who did not play in last week’s dual, rolled to a 6-4, 6-2 win over Weston Peplinski. Ethan Swiantek remained unbeaten on the year with a 6-0, 6-0 win at numberthree over Eli Robinson and Brayden Balciar cruised at number-four 6-1, 6-0 over Tyson Krueger. Swiantek is 9-0 while having played at three different singles levels.

Kevin and Tahtankka Damm improved to 5-4 for the year at number-one singles with their second straight-set win over Jacob Mengel and Mateo Koch. Monday’s scores were 6-1, 6-3. Brayden Machon and Dante Axon teamed up for the first time at number-three and were 6-0, 6-0 winners over Ian Osypowski and Dominic Kroening.

Pacelli’s win came at number-two doubles. Isaac Kosobucki, a singles winner over Balciar on May 18, and Bennett Eckendorf beat Saskatoon Damm and Adam Swedlund 7-5, 6-2.

Pacelli fell to 1-4 in the GNC and sits in fourth place behind 3-3 Antigo.

Medford 6, Antigo 1

It was worth the wait Thursday in Antigo when Medford completed a rare season sweep of the Red Robins 6-1. The teams started the meet by waiting out a long rain delay and played sev- eral matches under the lights to get the dual in. When it was done, Medford had a sweep of the doubles matches and three singles wins to improve to 4-1 in the GNC and 8-1 overall.

Two of the singles wins came in threeset matches. Swiantek defeated Calvin Jansen for the second time in a week in flight three. Jansen won the first set 6-2, but Swiantek rallied for 6-4, 6-4 wins to take the match.

In flight four, Balciar turned things around against Nolan Bunnell, who beat him in three sets back on May 14. Bunnell won the first set Thursday 6-2, but it was all Balciar after that. He took the next two sets 6-2, 6-1 to improve to 4-2 in singles play.

Tlusty added a 6-3, 6-1 win in flight two over Simon McPhail. Antigo made a lineup change from the May 14 meet and moved its best player, Garrett Husnick, from doubles to number-one singles. Husnick took down Searles 6-1, 6-2.

In doubles, Tahtankka Damm and Kevin Damm played a solid match, defeating Antigo’s team of Jerome Jones and Sam Bretl 6-3, 7-5. Saskatoon Damm and Swedlund teamed up for their first number-two doubles win, beating Frank McKenna and Aaron Converse 6-2, 6-3. Reilly Nutting and Alex Wilson got their first varsity win of 2021, getting credit for a forfeit win at number-three.