MEDFORD GIRLS TENNIS - GNC race tightens as Medford drops two; Raiders 2-1 at Amery

Things have tightened up a bit on the Medford Raiders in the last week in their quest to win the Great Northern Conference championship in girls tennis for the first time.

On Tuesday, the Raiders suffered their second straight dual-meet loss in conference play, a close 4-3 decision to defending WIAA Division 2 sectional champion Newman Catholic, a team that still features half of its team state lineup from last October.

As league play ended Tuesday, Medford held a 4-2 dual-meet record and has compiled 66 league points, good for a 14point lead over 5-0 Newman and a 16point lead over 4-1 Rhinelander. Those two teams can close the gap simply because they have one more meet left than Medford does.

Medford, though, has a chance to pad its point total today, Thursday, with a 4:30 p.m. meet at winless Phillips. The Raiders will close out the dual-meet portion of their GNC schedule Sept. 18 when they host Stevens Point Pacelli, a team that isn’t necessarily out of contention either, though it has just 42 points now. At 3-1, the Cardinals still have four dual meets left. One of those is against 3-2 Lakeland, who has 42 points and three meets left.

Medford head coach Jake Bucki said the Raiders knew the matchup with Newman would be tough due to the Cardinals’ strong singles lineup and a number-one doubles team that was a state qualifier last year and won a match in Madison.

“I was really happy,” Bucki said. “We got that third match. That was key.”

The difference between a 4-3 loss and a 5-2 loss was the number-three singles match. Medford’s Caidyn Zenner got off to a good start and took the first set 6-4 against Newman’s Brecklyn Lindner. But Lindner took control in the second set and won going away 6-1 to force a 10-point tiebreaker to decide the match.

Lindner jumped out to a 5-0 lead, but then got on the board with a nice drop shot at the net and climbed right back into it. She won two volleys at the net to pull within 5-4, served a winner to tie it at 5-5 and tied it again at 6-6 with a good deep shot that Lindner couldn’t return.

Zenner ended a long rally with a putaway point to the back corner at 7-6 and got to match point at 9-7 and 10-9. She had a shot to clinch it on the next point, but the top of the net caught just enough to knock what would have been the clinching shot back and tie it at 10-10. Lindner, who was the number-four player on Newman’s 2024 state team, then got to match point at 11-10, but Zenner hit a tough shot that forced Lindner to put it into the net, she won the next point on a deep backhand and then pushed a backhand shot past Lindner to finally win it 13-11.

Medford got two convincing sweeps in doubles play. Chloe Kapitz and Ellie Eckert continued to dominate in flight two, earning a 6-0, 6-0 win over Newman’s Zoe Sherry and Annie Martin. They are 11-0 in flight-two matches and 14-1 overall.

Uliah Etsitty and Averie Werner had no trouble in flight three, sweeping Newman’s Melody Pepke and Lucie Turajski 6-0, 6-0.

Newman’s returning state duo of Molly Merrill and Evelyn Herdrich beat Medford’s Bayley Metz and Makenna Tlusty 6-2, 6-2, dropping Medford’s pair to 9-2 on the year. It’s their first GNC loss.

While the score may not show it, the number-four singles match was just about as good as the number-three match. Newman’s Addison Puent beat Medford’s Raylin Rothmeier 6-2, 6-2, but the two played through numerous long points as their match nearly lasted just as long as the three-set match in flight three.

Raider Tallula Hahn got five games but was eventually beaten by Newman’s Addie Schmitt in flight one 6-2, 6-3. Kady Weix made a late push in flight two, but Newman’s Emma Larrain came away with a 6-1, 6-4 win.

Medford is now 9-6 overall in dual meets. Along with the last two GNC meets, the Raiders will get some good tests again Friday and Saturday at the Wausau West Invitational.

Amery Quad

On Friday, the Raiders beat Baldwin-Woodville 5-2 with their regular lineup and then mixed and matched new combinations while beating Ellsworth 5-2 and falling 4-3 to Amery at the Amery Quad, which was rescheduled after an Aug. 16 rainout.

Baldwin-Woodville tested Medford in singles play, earning a split, but the Raiders took all three doubles matches to secure the win.

Rothmeier survived a tiebreaker at the end of her number-four singles match and defeated the Blackhawks’ Kallie Schutz 75, 3-6, 10-5. Zenner was a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Baldwin-Woodville’s Olivia Waters at number-three.

The number-one match went the distance. Hahn won the first set 6-3, but Shannon Fritts stormed back with a 6-0 win in the second set and Fritts took the match with a 10-5 win in the tiebreaker. Jacque Kroening was too much for Weix, winning the flight-two match 6-2, 6-3.

Kapitz and Eckert won in flight two, but it didn’t come easily. They defeated Baldwin-Woodville’s Salem Tumax and Jessica Albers in another match that went to a tiebreaker 5-7, 6-4, 10-8. Medford’s top doubles team of Tlusty and Metz kept rolling, earning a 7-5, 6-2 win over Evelyn Dietzman and Ellie Wang. Werner and Etsitty swept Ellen Anderson and Rhyan Nichols at number-three 6-2, 6-1.

In the rematch of a 7-0 Medford win back on Aug. 22, only one matchup was the same Friday as the Raiders downed Ellsworth, who replaced Newman Catholic from the originally-scheduled four teams for this quad.

Zenner and Maggie Pechacek saw each other again at flight-three singles. Zenner won again in straight sets, this time by a score of 6-3, 6-0.

The Raiders again swept the doubles matches against the Panthers. Kapitz and Eckert moved up to the one-spot and defeated Brooke Olson and Alissa Davis 64, 6-1. Werner and Rothmeier teamed up at number-two and downed Bridget Dendinger and Maia Friesen 6-2, 6-1. Weix worked with Elle Strasburg in flight three and they won 6-2, 6-1 over Anna Oleson and Paighton Hotchkiss.

Metz played her first singles match of the season, winning the number-two match 6-2, 6-0 over Jianna Jean. Bailey Oleson defeated Etsitty in flight one 6-1, 64 and Madi Maxwell beat Raider Raylyn Liske at number-four in Liske’s first varsity match 6-4, 6-3.

The Amery dual meet came down to three match tiebreakers in singles play. The Warriors won all three to sweep the singles matches and win the dual.

Myka McCarty came back from a set down and outscored Weix in flight two 36, 6-4, 10-8. Charlotte Stewart did the same at number-three against Tlusty, who was playing in her first singles match of the fall. Stewart won it 2-6, 6-4, 10-4.

At number-four, Amery’s Cali Widiker won the first set against Zenner 6-2. Zenner answered with a 6-2 set-two win. The tiebreaker was close with Widiker prevailing 10-8. Faith Halverson completed the singles sweep with a 6-3, 61 win over Hahn.

Kapitz and Eckert won the top doubles match 6-1, 6-1 over Addie Gould and Mia Byrnes. Rothmeier and Werner easily took the first set 6-1 over Ella Chute and Reese Anderson, but they had to work for set two, winning the tiebreaker 7-3 to take the set 7-6. Metz and Strasburg eased to a 6-2, 6-1 win in flight three over Amery’s Kate Moskal and Jolee Marquand.

Hodags 5, Raiders 2

Medford’s perfect record through four Great Northern Conference dual meets went down in flames in its fifth league meet of the season Thursday, when the host Rhinelander Hodags sprung a 5-2 upset on the Raiders.

Three matches went to the 10-point tiebreaker and Rhinelander won all three to thrust itself back into GNC contention.

Medford got straight-set wins out of its top two doubles teams. Tlusty and Metz earned a hard-fought 6-4, 7-5 win over Teagan Turcotte and Maddie Legrey. Kapitz and Eckert won the flight-two match 6-4, 6-4 in a good match with Hodags Willow VanDenHeuvel and Eva Heck.

In the third doubles flight, Etsitty and Werner dropped the first set to Willow Mutter and Addy Currie 7-5. But Medford’s duo tied the match with a 6-4 win in the second set. The Hodags took the match with a 10-5 win in the tiebreaker.

In the top singles match, Hahn won the first set 6-3 over Annie Vander Galien, but the Hodag sophomore rallied with 6-1, 104 wins to take the match. In flight four, Rothmeier won the opening set 6-2, but freshman Lucy Evers came back with 6-2, 10-5 wins to steal the match.

Jordan Manske beat Weix 6-4, 6-4 in flight two and Taylor McKinney downed Zenner 6-2, 6-1, in flight three.