MEDFORD BOYS TENNIS - GNC battle of boys tennis unbeatens goes to the Hodags
MEDFORD BOYS TENNIS
The Great Northern Conference’s battle of unbeatens Tuesday went to the host Rhinelander Hodags, who got a thrilling win from their top singles player and four more straight-set wins to defeat the Medford Raiders 5-2.
Both teams entered the dual meet 3-0 in GNC play, though Rhinelander held a 34-32 points advantage. The Hodags extended that lead to eight, 44-36, going into the May 22 GNC championship tournament that Lakeland will host. The Thunderbirds, who finished 2-2 in GNC duals, have 34 points going into the tournament.
The best match of Tuesday’s meet was at number-one singles where Medford’s Cale Schulz gave Hodag Payton McCue all he wanted. McCue took the first set 6-1, but Schulz rallied in the second, winning it 6-4. That sent the match to a 10-point tiebreaker that went back-and-forth and extended well beyond the 10-point threshold before someone got the necessary two-point margin. McCue finally got there on his fifth try at 15-13.
Medford’s Parker Hill took the number-two match with a solid 6-2, 6-4 win over Rhinelander’s Karter Massey. But the Hodags secured a 6-2, 6-3 win from Asher Rivord over Raider Ethan Kollmansberger in flight three and a 6-3, 6-4 win from Calvin Loomis over Medford’s Christian Preuss in flight four.
Medford got one doubles win. Axl Spanbauer and Cash Thums took the number-three match 6-4, 6-3 over Braydon Lorman and Aiden Lueder. Jaeden Brandner and Cole Zenner put up a good fight at number-two, but Rhinelander’s Hart Hokens and Van Tulowitzky took the match 6-3, 6-2. Rhinelander’s top team of Aiden Ostermann and Michael Schiek was too much for Medford’s Mason Reimann and Blaine Searles in a 6-0, 6-2 decision.
Medford is 6-10 overall in dual meets this season. The Raiders are off until the GNC meet, which is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. on May 22.
Raiders 4, Tigers 3
On Friday, the Raiders swept the doubles matches and got a crucial number-one singles win from Schulz to earn a 4-3 non-conference win at Black River Falls.
Schulz’s match was one of two on the singles side of things to go to a 10-point match tiebreaker.
He won the first set 7-5 in his match with Sullivan King, but King came back to win set two 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Schulz outlasted King 11-9 to take the match for his second flight-one win of the season.
Preuss was involved in the other tiebreaker. In flight four, he won his first set with Zander Krosinski 6-4. But Krosinski came back, taking the second set 6-2 and the tiebreaker 10-7.
In doubles, Reimann and Searles improved to 5-3 as flight-one teammates. They earned a straight-set win over Tavaris Rave and Adam Bartlett 6-2, 6-3. Zenner and Thums went to 3-0 as flighttwo doubles partners. They emerged victorious in a first set that went the distance. They took the tiebreaker 7-3 to win the set 7-6. Zenner and Thums completed the win by taking the second set 6-2.
Spanbauer and Ethan Jones took the third flight by forfeit. Mason Lechner beat Ethan Kollmansberger 6-3, 6-4 in flighttwo singles and Sander King defeated Parker Hill in flight-three singles 6-4, 6-1.
This dual meet was added to the schedule after the teams were unable to get it in during the April 17 Altoona Quad.
