MEDFORD GIRLS TENNIS - Raiders get rare tennis win over Hodags; GNC tourney is today

MEDFORD GIRLS TENNIS

The Medford Raiders will go into the Great Northern Conference championship tournament at Lakeland today, Thursday, sitting in fourth place in the team standings following a 5-2 win at Rhinelander in the last GNC dual meet of 2024.

The win was the first for a Medford team over the Hodags since 2015 in GNC competition. Rhinelander teams had won 10 straight GNC matches over Medford in that time.

The victory also put the Raiders four points ahead of the Hodags, 58-54, in the team standings going into today’s meet.

Defending GNC champion Lakeland has the inside track on repeating after going 70 in the duals and accumulating 84 points. Newman Catholic (6-1, 74 points) and Stevens Point Pacelli (5-2, 70 points) hold second and third place.

Medford has several opportunities for individual awards (first through third place in each flight) at today’s meet, especially in the lower flights.

Makenna Tlusty finished 6-1 overall in GNC singles play, capping it off with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Rhinelander’s Becca Brost in flight three play. Emily Kiselicka continued her strong play in flight four with 6-1, 6-4 win over JaLyn LaChapelle. Lily Holmes and Bayley Metz improved to 6-1 since they were paired together at number-two doubles two weeks ago. They dropped their first set to Rhinelander’s Evelyn Sawyer and Maya Patrick 6-1, but rallied with a 6-3 win in set two and a 10-7 win in the match tiebreaker.

Hannah Dahl and Rachel Daniels are now 5-0 together at number-three doubles after they swept Rhinelander’s Willow VanDenHeuvel and Eva Heck 6-1, 6-2.

Audrey Ruesch completed GNC duals with a 4-3 record in the top singles flight. She won a good match with Rhinelander’s Kelsey Winter on Monday 7-5, 6-4.

Natalie Preuss extended both sets in her number-two singles match with Hodag Karmen Lopez, but Lopez got the key points late to win each one. Lopez won the tiebreaker 7-3 to take the first set 7-6 and then held off Preuss 7-5.

The Raiders nearly pulled out a win in flight-one doubles. Seniors Indya Mann and Grace Holmes were beaten 6-2 in set one by Dawsyn Barkus and Brooke Sisel but the Raiders forced a match tiebreaker by taking the second set 6-4. The Hodags won the tiebreaker 10-7.

Following today’s GNC meet, Medford will host one more varsity dual meet Tuesday against D.C. Everest starting at 4:30 p.m. before moving into WIAA Division 1 post-season play Oct. 7.