Hodags too much twice; Raiders beat Ashland, Antigo

MEDFORD BOYS TENNIS

Realistically, there has been little doubt the Rhinelander Hodags are going to win another Great Northern Conference boys tennis championship. The Medford Raiders went to Rhinelander Tuesday as the GNC last team to have a shot at shocking the home team, but the Hodags convincingly held serve.

Rhinelander swept the GNC doubleheader 5-2 and 7-0 to open up a 26-point lead over Medford in the team standings and that could get wider with Rhinelander still having two dual meets with short-handed Antigo today, Thursday, and Friday.

Medford fell to 4-2 in GNC duals and has meets left with Stevens Point Pacelli today and at Lakeland Monday. The Pacelli meet was rained out Monday and today’s rescheduled match wipes out Medford’s originally-scheduled trip to Eau Claire Regis. The race for second place will conclude at the GNC championship tournament, hosted by Lakeland on May 18.

Medford’s wins in the first dual of Tuesday’s doubleheader came in singles. The Hodags got a bit of an upset in flight one, where their normal number-two player, John Currie, knocked off Medford’s top gun Brayden Balciar. Balciar won the first set 6-3, but Currie evened things up 6-1. The two played a 10-point tiebreaker to decide the match. It extended past the 10-point mark when Currie finally won 13-11.

Saskatoon Damm took the numbertwo match for Medford 7-6 (5), 6-1 over Gavin Denis and Conner Klingbeil was a 6-1, 6-2 winner over Nicholas Lesch at number-three. Normally one of Medford’s top doubles players, Brett Lundy fell in the flight-four singles match to Max Durkee 6-4, 6-2.

The Hodags cruised on the doubles side of the meet. Joseph Belanger and Layne Roeser beat Medford’s Mason Reimann and Parker Hill in flight one 6-0, 6-0, Leo Losch and Charlie Heck beat Cale Schulz and Oliver Swiantek in flight two 6-0, 6-0 and Aiden Ostermann and Michael Schiek beat Keagan Gehrke and Cole Zenner 6-1, 6-0 in flight three.

The lineups changed for both teams in round two and the Hodags earned a clean sweep.

Balciar and Damm took on Loesch and Heck in the number-one doubles match, which the Hodags won 6-2, 6-3. Eli Lundt and Dawson Pontell beat Klingbeil and Lundy in flight two 6-1, 6-3 and Karter Massey and Payton McCue were 6-0, 6-1 winners over Swiantek and Gehrke.

In singles, the Hodags’ usual numberone, Dalton Fritz, took care of Reimann 6-0, 6-1. Belanger swept Hill 6-0, 6-0, Durkee beat Zenner 6-1, 6-0 and Zacha King got a second-set challenge from Raider Nathan Willman but won 6-1, 7-5.

Rhinelander added a third win in the evening, beating D.C. Everest 4-3 in nonconference play. In addition to the last GNC meets, Medford is scheduled to host D.C. Everest on Monday.

1-1 at Altoona

The Raiders got two dual meets in at Friday’s Altoona Quad, losing 5-2 to the host Railroaders and squeezing out their second 4-3 win over Ashland in a oneweek span.

The decisive match against Ashland actually came at number-three doubles. Swiantek and Gehrke got into a marathon match with Adrian Erickson and Ryan O’Bey, winning the first set 7-5 and dropping the second set 6-4. Ten points was not enough in the tiebreaker as the Raiders finally won it 14-12.

Damm and Balciar again teamed up for some doubles play and came out 6-3, 6-4 winners over Ashland’s Austin Vyskocil and Bodee Mikkonen, who beat Lundy and Dante Axon in the April 28 dual meet at Medford. Ashland’s Stasz Kaszuba and Danny Kelley took the number- two match 6-0, 2-6, 12-10 in another nail-biter over Reimann and Hill.

Axon was involved in another match that went to a tiebreaker. At number two singles, Axon was defeated 5-7, 6-1, 10-5 by Ashland’s Gage Kabasa. Harry Diesberg handled Lundy at number-one 6-1, 6-1.

But Medford got two big wins in flights three and four with Klingbeil avenging a loss to Ben Snyder from a week earlier with a 6-2, 6-0 win and Schulz beating Kayelin Hanson 6-1, 6-1.

Klingbeil also won his number-three match in the Altoona dual, defeating Nicky Manz 6-0, 6-0. Damm was a winner in the number-two match, beating Trenton Navarre 6-1, 6-1.

Balciar lost for the first time this season at number-one singles. Ryan Hays won a good match 6-4, 6-4. Isaiah Yi beat Gehrke at number-four 7-5, 6-0.

The Railroaders swept the doubles matches. Teagan Bennett and Lucas Pederson beat Axon and Lundy 6-1, 6-1. Daylen Parks and Carter Drescher beat Reimann and Hill 6-1, 6-2 and Brandon Spies and Riley Miller beat Schulz and Swiantek 6-2, 6-2.

Medford 6, Antigo 1

For the second time this season, Medford had no problem with a short-handed Antigo squad on Thursday, rolling 6-1 on the MASH courts.

Only the singles matches were actually contested.

Balciar took charge when he had to in a good match with Nolan Bunnell in flight one. The teams’ top players battled to a 6-6 first-set tie with Balciar taking the tiebreak 7-4 to win the set 7-6. Those two again went to an extra game in the second set with Bunnell winning 7-5, but it was all Balciar in the third set 6-1 as he beat Bunnell for the second time this season.

Damm beat Landon Nelson for the second time and, like the first time, it was in convincing fashion 6-2, 6-2 in flight two. Klingbeil won a tiebreak 7-3 to take the first set in his number-three match with Michael Hagerty 7-6. Klingbeil then closed out the match 6-1 in the second set. In his first varsity singles match, Swiantek faced Garrett Tom in flight four. Tom won 6-1, 6-2.

Earning forfeit wins were Lundy and Axon at number-one doubles, Reimann and Hill at number-two doubles and Schulz and Gehrke at number-three doubles.