GNC GIRLS TENNIS - Medford’s goals are met with fourth-place finish at GNC meet

GNC GIRLS TENNIS

The Medford Raiders secured fourth place in the final standings and earned three award-winning placements at Thursday’s Great Northern Conference girls tennis championship tournament at Lakeland.

Seniors Hannah Dahl and Rachel Daniels landed on the All-GNC second team after reaching the championship match in flight-three doubles, while senior Emily Kiselicka did the same in flight-four singles. Junior Makenna Tlusty took third in flight-three singles to earn All-GNC honorable mention.

Medford scored 13 points in Thursday’s tournament to finish with 71 for the conference season. That put the Raiders seven points ahead of fifth-place Rhinelander, who scored 10 points in the tourney. Lakeland won the tournament with 29 points and clinched its second straight GNC title with 113 total points. Stevens Point Pacelli scored 26 points in the tournament and Newman Catholic scored 23, but Newman held on to second place in the final standings, 97-96, over Pacelli.

“Coming off of a huge win over Rhinelander (5-2 on Sept. 23), I was feeling very good about where our level of play was and wanted to build off of that,” Medford head coach Jake Bucki said. “As a team, we had two outcome goals for the tournament. One was to increase the lead over Rhinelander in the conference standings and the second was to have three or more flights earn all-conference honors. After a great day of competition, we accomplished both of these goals. Multiple coaches came up and commended our ladies for how much they improved throughout the season.

“Overall, I'm extremely proud of how these young ladies represented our team and school today.”

Daniels and Dahl have been Medford’s flight-three partners since Sept. 13, the day after the Raiders lost 6-1 in a GNC dual meet to Newman Catholic. They have gone 7-1 since. Daniels and Dahl opened Thursday’s tournament as the flight’s three seed and beat Pacelli’s Caitlyn Yarbrough and Isla Wojtalewicz 6-2, 6-1 to advance to a semifinal match with secondseeded Addison Puent and Abby Hynes, who were were 6-1 in GNC matches during the dual meets. In the Sept. 12 dual, Dahl and Medford’s Sydnie Peterson were beaten by Puent and Hynes 6-4, 6-1.

Puent and Hynes took the first set in Thursday’s semifinal 6-2, but Dahl and Daniels hung tough and pulled out a 6-4 win in the second set to force a 10-point match tiebreaker. Dahl and Daniels won it 10-7 to earn a spot in the championship match with top-seeded GNC unbeatens Chance Jacobs and Elise Lamers of Lakeland.

Dahl and Daniels didn’t go down easily, but Jacobs and Lamers won 6-3, 7-5.

“Rachel and Hannah cruised through their first match, setting up a match against a strong 17-2 Newman duo,” Bucki said. “After dropping the first set, these two got their energy up and started to place their volleys very well, setting up a third-set tiebreaker. They continued their strong play in the tiebreak and earned their way to the championship match.”

Kiselicka improved to 10-3 as a number-four singles player and 12-3 overall with her 2-1 day at the conference tournament. Seeded fourth, she dominated Antigo’s Addison Burhop 6-0, 6-2 in the first round and then faced a surprise opponent, Newman’s Brechlyn Lindner, in the semifinals. Lindner was just 1-1 in varsity play and hadn’t played in a GNC match. She knocked off top-seeded Ellie Baker of Lakeland 6-2, 3-6, 10-4 in her first-round match and gave Kiselicka all she could handle in the semifinal.

Lindner and Kiselicka went to a tiebreaker in set one, which Lindner won 7-5 to take the set 7-6. Kiselicka won the second set 6-3 to send the match to a 10point tiebreaker. Ten points wasn’t enough as Kiselicka finally got the two-point margin needed at 11-9 to win the set and the match.

In the final, Kiselicka met secondseeded Megan Peterson of Stevens Point Pacelli, who won 6-2, 6-4. “Emily or Tallula Hahn could have been in the lineup at number-four singles and both would have helped our team,” Bucki said. “Emily’s skill set is a little more diverse and that proved to be beneficial in a match against Newman’s player. Newman’s player came in as an unknown and she knocked out the top-seeded Baker in the first round. After losing the first set, Emily had to dig deep and play the net frequently to get herself back in the match. In the tiebreak, she was down 6-9 and we always talk about playing the same, no matter if the score is 0-9 or 9-0. I think having this mentality played a role in her eventual win getting her to the championship.”

Tlusty improved to 13-3 as a flight-three player and 17-3 overall in 2024 singles play with her 2-1 outing. Seeded third in the bracket, Tlusty had no trouble in round one, sweeping Antigo’s Lily Baumgartner 6-1, 6-1. Second-seeded Morgan Matowitz of Pacelli defeated Tlusty 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinals, but Tlusty rebounded in the third-place match, defeating fourthseeded Emma Larrain of Newman Catholic in another dramatic match tiebreaker 3-6, 6-4, 12-10. Matowitz knocked off topseeded Sierra Wallace of Lakeland 6-0, 6-0 in the championship.

“Makenna had an outstanding day,” Bucki said. “Against Pacelli, the score wasn’t quite reflective of how competitive each individual point was. Morgan has a few more tools and has a lot of tennis experience. In the third-place match, Larrain controlled the first set. We talked with Makenna on trying a few different things, but really I give all the credit to Makenna for just sticking in there and going out of her comfort zone. She was hitting the ball harder than she has in any other match and was willing to come play the net when the opportunity presented itself. Her willingness to make these changes was ultimately what led to her winning the match and earning honorable mention honors.”

Medford’s flight-two doubles team of senior Lily Holmes and junior Bayley Metz earned two team points by reaching the semifinals and placing fourth. Seeded third, Holmes and Metz easily took care of sixth-seeded Kaitlyn Matthewson and Saige Stein of Phillips 6-3, 6-0 in the first round. Second-seeded Lila Biller and Alyssa Erickson of Lakeland won the semifinal match 6-3, 6-3 and went on to win the title match 6-3, 6-4 over Samantha Schoepke and Reagan Abel of Pacelli. In Medford’s fifth three-set match of the day, Newman’s Naomi Stenstrom and Fiona MacCarthy recovered after losing a tiebreaker 7-3 in a 7-6 first set, winning the last two sets 6-2, 10-3.

“Bayley and Lily played a great match against Newman’s team,” Bucki said. “I was very surprised when I saw that Pacelli upset Newman, as I thought Newman was going to win the whole flight. I knew it would be a tough match and Bayley and Lily had to adapt to harder hitting than what they’re used to at two doubles. They adjusted well. Newman was able to do a few things that took our net game out of the equation.”

Seniors Indya Mann and Grace Holmes were the first Medford team to go to a match tiebreaker. In flight one doubles, they took third-seeded Kristina Ouimette and Ali Timmerman of Lakeland to the limit in the first round. The T-Birds won the first set 7-5, Holmes and Mann came back with a 6-2 win and Lakeland’s team took the tiebreaker 10-7.

“Indya and Grace played their best match of the year against Lakeland,” Bucki said. “I was extremely proud of how they responded after the first set loss. In the tiebreaker, Ouimette kind of took over and looked to put everything away that she could. If these two can continue this level of play, they could upset someone at subsectionals.”

Three days after beating Rhinelander’s Kelsey Winter in the last GNC dual meet of the season, Medford’s Audrey Ruesch had the tables turned on her with Winter’s 6-0, 6-2 first-round win in flight-one singles. In flight-two singles, Rhinelander’s Karmen Lopez beat Raider senior Natalie Preuss 6-4, 6-4 for her second close win of the week over Preuss.

“We knew both of these would be good matches and they proved to be,” Bucki said. “Audrey started out a little slow and Winter took advantage of this by taking over. The second set saw much better play from Audrey. Karmen and Natalie are polar opposites in their styles. However, I think every time they play, it would be extremely close.”

Emily Kiselicka Second Team

Hannah Dahl Second Team

Makenna Tlusty Hon. Mention

MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS Medford’s Indya Mann slices this shot over the net during a long rally in flight-one doubles play Tuesday. Mann and Grace Holmes won their match 6-4, 6-4 over D.C. Everest’s Qiarie Burns and Emily Ringwelski.