GNC confirms tennis award winners for the 2021 season

ALL-GNC GIRLS TENNIS

The Great Northern Conference confi rmed the individual awards for its 2021 girls tennis season with the release of this fall’s all-conference teams on Monday.

With the results of the Sept. 25 conference tournament in Antigo, Medford’s number-three doubles team of juniors Myah Smith and Eryka Seidl earned All-GNC second-team honors and the Raiders’ number-one doubles team of seniors Lindsey Wildberg and Sophie Brost received honorable mention.

Seidl and Smith drew the second seed in the tournament and beat seventhseeded Arianna Riley and Ariel Henney of Phillips 7-6 (2), 6-2 in the quarterfinals. They swept Antigo’s third-seeded team of Anna Evans and Claire Musolff 6-2, 6-1 and took the first set in the title match against top-seeded Malina Reynolds and Cassidy Cleveland of Lakeland 6-4. They nearly clinched the title in the second set, but the T-Birds survived and won it 7-5 and then took the third set 6-0.

Smith and Seidl went 5-2 in GNC matches in the dual meets, including a loss in a number-two match, and finished the year at the WIAA Division 2 sectional tournament in Baldwin-Woodville, where they placed third.

Brost and Wildberg played well as the four-seed in the GNC tournament, sweeping Lakeland’s Hailey Curtis and Phoebe Wirtz 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals, putting up a good fight against top-seeded Ella Schroeder and Marissa Stolt of Pacelli in a 6-1, 6-4 loss in the semifinals and then beating third-seeded Ellie Packard and Faith Bussiere of Antigo in the thirdplace match. After starting the year as singles players, Brost and Wildberg went 3-2 together in GNC duals.

The seniors reached the sectional tournament in flight one and were chosen as special qualifiers to compete in the WIAA Division state tournament in Madison, where they lost a first-round match on Oct. 14 to Waukesha Catholic Memorial’s Reagan Rebholz and Mary McCaffery 6-3, 6-1.

Medford finished sixth in the eightteam conference this fall with 51 total points. The Raiders were 2-5 in league duals. Rhinelander easily won the conference championship with 114 total points, followed by Stevens Point Pacelli (78), Antigo (74), Newman Catholic (74) and Lakeland (64). Columbus Catholic (34) and Phillips (8) were seventh and eighth. By winning the flight-one singles championship at the GNC meet, Rhinelander senior Annika Johnson was named the league’s Singles Player of the Year. Schroeder and Stolt, who later placed fourth at state, won the flight-one doubles title to earn the Doubles Players of the Year award. Lakeland’s Tom Oestreich was named the Coach of the Year.