Tennis team brings the heat during 1-1 day

MEDFORD GIRLS TENNIS

The Medford Raiders did their best to beat the heat on the tennis court Tuesday afternoon, beat the Bloomer Blackhawks 4-3 at the end of their doubleheader and took a good shot at beating the Rhinelander Hodags at the start of it.

Medford gave Rhinelander a pretty strong push, but the annual GNC title contenders used four straight-set wins to take a 4-3 victory in the day’s opening dual on the MASH courts. Rhinelander stayed unbeaten in league play at 3-0, while Medford fell to 1-3.

“Overall, a good day for us,” Medford head coach Jake Bucki said. “Getting three wins against Rhinelander will help us stay in the running for conference.”

Against Rhinelander Tuesday, Medford got a strong effort from its number-one doubles team of Masaeda Krug and Audrey Ruesch. Getting stronger the more they play with each other, Krug and Ruesch dominated the first set against Rhinelander’s Karmen Lopez and Kayla Tessmann, winning it 6-2. The second set went the distance, going to a tiebreaker tied at 6-6. There, the Raiders got an early ace from Ruesch, got Rhinelander to make some mistakes and then closed it out at 7-0 with two aces from Krug to win the set 7-6 and take the match.

“Our one doubles was up 6-2, 5-2, but had to play through some adversity as Rhinelander went on a streak and took the lead 6-5,” Bucki said. “Masaeda and Audrey maintained their composure, forced a tiebreak and then shut them out in the tiebreaker. Definitely not an ideal situation, but for the circumstance they were in, they focused on the present and were able to gain control again. That’s a very big win for them in regards to subsectional seeding.” At number-four singles, Raider Natalie Preuss won a good battle with Hodag Sam Aschenbrenner. Preuss jumped ahead 3-0 in the first set, but Aschenbrenner came back and took the set in a tiebreaker 7-6 (5). Preuss regrouped and took the second set 6-2, forcing a 10-point tiebreaker to decide the match. Preuss won that 10-8.

“Natalie continued to do what she does on the court and outwork her opponent,” Bucki said. “She has been consistent all year, but has been starting to place her shots better. Whether she stays at number- four or moves up to number-three, she will be ready for any opponent. “

The number-three doubles team of Madison Clarkson and Makenna Tlusty was Medford’s third winner in the dual. They took the first set over Maya Patrick and Willow VanDenHeuvel 6-3 and led the second set 5-1 before holding off a late rally by the Hodags 6-4.

Rhinelander’s Brooke Sisel and Evelyn Sawyer won a competitive numbertwo doubles match with Medford’s Grace Holmes and Indya Mann 6-3, 6-3. Raider Jaylin Machon pushed Dawsyn Barkus to a first-set tiebreaker at number-two singles. Barkus won the tiebreaker 7-2 to take the set 7-6 and carried that momentum to a 6-2 win the second set to win the match.

“I was hoping for a closer match at number-two doubles as both teams are strong relative to their flight, but we struggled with the wind and Rhinelander had more control than we did,” Bucki said. “I’m hoping we get to see them this weekend at Wausau West or at the conference tourney. Jaylin taking Dawson to a first set tiebreak should be a big confidence booster that she can play with some of the top players in the conference at a higher flight.”

Tori Riopel downed Medford’s Marcy Razink 6-2, 6-1 in flight-one singles and Shayla Coppenger beat Raider Morgan Strebig 6-0, 6-2 at number-three.

In the day’s second dual meet, Bloomer won the top three singles flight, but Medford swept the doubles side of things and got an easy win from Preuss to secure the non-conference team victory.

Preuss, who improved to 6-2 on the year in number-four singles play, was a 6-0, 6-0 winner over Jenna Bronstad.

Krug and Ruesch earned their fourth win in their last five matches together with a dominant 6-0, 6-0 sweep over Bloomer’s Kyilee Schwenk and Savanna Seibel. Holmes and Mann had no trouble in flight-two doubles, taking a 6-1, 6-1 win over Lainey Thur and Jaedyn McCann. Clarkson and Tlusty, who improved to 4-0 together, got their second win of the day at number-three, beating Addison Wundrow and Olivia Holstad 6-2, 6-0.

“Maddy and Makenna had a great day pairing back up and will likely be our three-doubles team moving forward,” Bucki said.

Razink found a competitive equal in flight-one singles in Bloomer’s Emma Harms. Razink took the first set 7-5, Harms reversed that with a 7-5 secondset win and then Harms took the 10-point tiebreaker 10-3 to win the match. Chloe Grant was a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Machon and Eva Nelson beat Strebig 6-1, 6-2.

“Marcy had a very well-played match with Harms,” Bucki said. “If they played each other 10 times, they’d both likely win five times each. The heat definitely affected our singles players in their second matches as Bloomer was fresh. Grant and Nelson, at their respective flights, were quality players and could definitely pose a threat to some of their subsectional’s top players.”

The win over Bloomer left Medford at 8-7 overall as the Raiders continue to push through the busy stretch of their regular season. Within the next week, Medford is scheduled to finish the dualmeet portion of its GNC season already. The Raiders host Columbus Catholic today, Thursday, at 4:30 p.m., head to Antigo Tuesday and then finish by hosting Lakeland on Sept. 14. In between the Raiders will get several more dual meets in this weekend at the two-day Wausau West Invitational, which starts at noon on Friday and features a mix of GNC, Wisconsin Valley Conference and Big Rivers Conference teams.

Newman 5, Medford 2

On Thursday, Medford earned a pair of three-set wins but that was all the Raiders got in a 5-2 GNC loss in Wausau to a solid squad from Newman Catholic.

Preuss returned to the varsity lineup and won the number-four singles match with Olivia Fox 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 for her fourth singles win of the fall. At number-two doubles, Holmes and Mann continued to find success, fighting off the Cardinals’ Naomi Stenstrom and Addison Puent 6-3, 2-6, 6-1.

Medford came up short in a close number-three doubles match. Newman’s Fiona MacCarthy and Abby Hynes were 6-4, 6-4 winners over Clarkson and Hannah Dahl.

In the flight-one match, Newman’s Ava Sukanen and Molly Merrill were 6-1, 6-3 winners over Krug and Ruesch.

Newman took the rest of the singles matches in straight sets. Reagan Herdrich beat Machon in flight one 6-0, 6-1 and Addie Schmitt beat Razink by the same score in flight two. Evelyn Herdrich was a 6-2, 6-4 winner over Tlusty at the number-three spot.