October 9, 2008
Big comeback sends doubles team to sectional
On the brink of elimination, Medford’s number-one doubles team of Connie Sackmann and Brittany Dahl stormed back to knock off their opponents from Marshfield Columbus Monday and advance to the WIAA Division 2 sectional tennis tournament, held yesterday (Wednesday) in Kohler.
Sackmann and Dahl were the only Raiders to get out of Monday’s WIAA Division 2 Menasha St. Mary’s subsectional, but head coach Jim Elliott was quite pleased with his squad’s fifth-place standing after the tournament.
Medford scored six team points to beat Stevens Point Pacelli (4), Marshfield Columbus (2), Clintonville (0) and Wisconsin Rapids Assumption (0).
The fourth seed in the flight one doubles bracket, Sackmann and Dahl were matched up against the fifth-seeded team from Columbus with the winner getting a trip to Kohler and the rest of Monday off.
The Dons took the first set 6-4, and then led the second set 5-1 before Sackmann and Dahl made their comeback for the ages. They won six straight games to win the set 7-5. They carried the momentum into the third set where they clinched the match with a 6-2 win.
“They were under a lot of pressure there, but they came back and won it,” Elliott said. “It was a heck of a match.”
For Sackmann, this is her second straight sectional berth as a number-one doubles player. She and Michelle Hayden fell just short of a state trip a year ago.
Sackmann and Dahl (11-6), both seniors, needed to win their first match Wednesday at Kohler’s indoor tennis facility to advance to next weekend’s state tournament in Madison. The other number-one doubles teams advancing from this subsectional were Lauren Tubbs and Beth Pyan of Wausau Newman (21-0), Katie Holtz and Jessica Hammond of Fox Valley Lutheran (13-6) and Sarah Semanek and Sarah Dickhut of Appleton Xavier (21-5).
Medford’s other two doubles teams also won at least one match Monday.
The number-three team of Tianna Hamland and Kelsey Fierke had to win three matches to advance to the sectional, and they nearly did it. They came back to beat Menasha St. Mary’s 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 and then swept Clintonville’s team 6-3, 6-0 before dropping their semifinal match to Katie Siewert and Caitlyn Bastable of Wausau Newman 6-3, 6-0.
The number-two team of Janey Ruesch and Arielle Lammar opened with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Wisconsin Rapids Assumption’s team, but their sectional and state dreams died with a 6-0, 6-0 loss to the 17-3 team of Shannon Stilp and Andrea Jumes of Appleton Xavier.
Taylor Bucki earned Medford’s lone win in singles competition. She won her opening match at number-four singles 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 over an opponent from Pacelli before bowing out with a 6-2, 6-1 loss to Xavier’s Elizabeth Dickhut, who is 21-0.
Becca Ruesch finished her season at number-one singles with a 6-2, 6-2 loss to the top player from Fox Valley Lutheran. Christa Meyer fell 6-1, 6-1 to Newman’s Carolina Larrain at number-two and Amanda Viveros lost 6-0, 6-0 to Newman’s Sarah Connolly (21-1) at number-three.
Appleton Xavier led the subsectional field with 24 points, four more than Wausau Newman. Menasha St. Mary’s had 12 points and Fox Valley Lutheran had eight.
Players who advanced from Monday’s subsectional were set to compete at Kohler Wednesday against those who advanced from Tuesday’s Two Rivers subsectional.
Green Bay Notre Dame scored 24 points at Two Rivers. Kohler and Roncalli each scored 16.
