Raiders looking at several options to fill varsity lineup

MEDFORD GIRLS TENNIS PREVIEW

A little more than a week and one fullday competition into the 2023 season, it’s been positive on the tennis courts for the Medford Raiders’ girls team.

While the team is experiencing a fairly significant roster turnover at the varsity level, ninth-year head coach Jake Bucki is finding he has more than enough options to fill the spots vacated by last year’s graduates and this is a group of girls who has, so far, showed a willingness to work and compete for those spots. That’s going to make filling out the lineup sheets tough, especially in the early part of the season. But as Bucki sees it, that’s a good problem to have.

“Honestly, I bet eight of the last nine evenings, girls have texted me and asked for the key to the shed to get the machine or to get some balls and serve with them,” Bucki said after the varsity finished its practice Tuesday morning. “That’s what it’s all about, getting them to want to be out here and want to improve. They really want to work and improve and they love playing tennis. The leadership has been awesome. There’s been no discipline type things or anything like that. They want to work.”

The Raiders were the first local squad to compete in an official competition in the 2023-24 school year on Saturday, posting a 2-1 record at the Baldwin-Woodville Quad. Medford opens Great Northern Conference play today, Thursday, at Stevens Point Pacelli and goes to Phillips on Tuesday. Medford’s home opener is a non-conference dual meet with D.C. Everest on Aug. 29.

The performance at Baldwin-Woodville was encouraging. The Raiders lost 5-2 to the host Blackhawks, who Bucki said clearly brought more experience to the table, yet Medford was two match tiebreakers away from winning the dual. The Raiders handled Barron 5-2 and got two big match-tiebreaker wins to beat Amery 4-3.

“We had 11 girls that got their first varsity win,” Bucki said. “That’s unheard of. Everyone that did not have a varsity win going in got a varsity win. I told them that’s a success right there. This early in the year for them to be getting wins is huge.

“That’s kinda where we’re at,” he added. “We had some really skilled JV players last year that typically probably would’ve been at the bottom of the lineup but because of the depth we had last year, they just weren’t.”

“It was a great day for our first one,” senior Masaeda Krug said. “I think for a lot of girls trying different things and playing varsity for the first time, it was eyeopening, but in a good

way.” Krug is, by far, Medford’s most experienced player, having worked her way into the varsity lineup by the end of her freshman year in 2020.

She and junior Audrey Ruesch, who earned honorable mention in the GNC last fall at number-three singles and was the WIAA Division 2 sectional runnerup at that flight, are likely to fill the top two singles spots in the lineup the way Bucki sees it now.

From there, there’s a crew of about a dozen more players working in varsity practices who maybe have gotten a taste of varsity action prior to this year or were knocking at the door and are now eager for their shot.

Senior Marcy Razink is one of them and Bucki said she’s been one of the noticeable players early on who’s grabbing her opportunity.

“There’s a lot of motivation for sure to get up on that ladder,” Razink said. “I can see a lot of motivation from girls to get up there.”

The ladder is something Bucki broke out this year, not so much to determine a pecking order, but more as a motivational tool.

“This is the first year I’m doing a singles ladder with everybody on it,” he said. “You’re just playing up a match or down a match, whoever is next to you. I showed them that on the third day of practice and it was interesting to see their responses. There was nobody that was like, ‘oh I’m 11th, I’m not on varsity.’ We talked about that. We said this is a team whether you’re in the varsity lineup or not, you’re considered with the varsity team with our top 14-15. I said this is a motivational piece more than anything, whether you’re on the bottom or at the top. The person below you is trying to catch you and take your spot.”

Madison Clarkson, Morgan Strebig and Jaylin Machon were among the seniors who got wins on Saturday and first-time varsity winners among the juniors included Hannah Dahl, Rachel Daniels, Grace Holmes, Lily Holmes, Indya Mann, Sydnie Peterson and Natalie Preuss. Sophomore Makenna Tlusty got a singles win too.

“Our doubles lineup is looking like Grace Holmes/ Indya Mann and Maddie Clarkson/Hannah Dahl and I don’t know which one is one and two,” Bucki said. “Hannah has stepped up. She has put herself in that position where she’ll be there. Three doubles could have any combo of four or five different girls and it’s the same for three and four singles. Rachel Daniels definitely improved quite a bit over the summer. She spent a lot of time hitting off the machine.”

Krug has spent most of her first three varsity seasons playing doubles, but right now Bucki envisions the senior filling the number-one singles role.

“It’s kind of surreal,” Krug said of entering her last season. “With the leadership role, I feel comfortable with it and I’ve grown into it especially being just here with this team. It’s just the senior part I’m really uncomfortable with.”

Bucki felt Krug would’ve had a pretty good shot at making it to the WIAA state tournament had Medford stayed in Division 2. But this fall, for the first time since 2006, Medford will compete in Division 1 in the post-season. Not that Krug still can’t make it to the big dance.

“She’s the one person that it affects the most,” Bucki said. “She would’ve had a pretty good shot to go to state in singles. Where now, she’s going to have to bust her butt. Or maybe she can be a special qualifier. She’s had the right mindset.”

Ruesch went 1-1 Saturday, losing a flight-one match in a tiebreaker against Baldwin-Woodville and winning a flighttwo match in a tiebreaker against Barron. Bucki is anxious to see how she fares against some better competition this fall.

“For her, it’ll be just about adjusting to the pace, which that girl from Baldwin (Maggie Jensen) was the perfect girl to play because she was all about pace and going to the net. Audrey had to adjust between hits. She had to be a little bit quicker and she did it.”

The players know lineup adjustments and intrasquad competition will be common, especially early, but Krug and Razink said the attitude in practice so far has been great and the older players in the program intend to make sure it stays that way.

“I think just working with coach Bucki, he’s such a great girls coach because he just knows the best way to approach things,” Krug said. “It’s easy to follow his lead.”

“Stay motivated on the court and don’t get in your head because that’s huge,” Razink said. “That’s where a lot of losses come from is getting in your head on the court.”

Medford went 7-12 overall in dual meets last season, including a 3-4 mark in what turned out to be a pretty competitive Great Northern Conference. The Raiders, who were sixth in the final standings, are expecting the same kind of competition but are confident they can move up that GNC ladder.

The schedule also includes opportunities to face Division 1 teams to prepare for subsectional play at Rhinelander on Oct. 2 and sectional play at Eau Claire Memorial two days later.

“Two of Bucki’s big things are effort and attitude,” Krug said. “I think a lot of us are focusing on the effort part for sure. It definitely shows. This group of girls I feel is always giving 100%. Just continuing that throughout the season, even when you’re not having a great game or something.”

“We talked this week about how it’s a growth mindset,” Bucki said. “This year is about realizing where you are and where you need to get and a lot of them have that potential to get there, even by the end of this year, and be pretty competitive.

That’s what I complimented the girls about on Saturday, just how they competed. Every match they competed.”

Medford senior Masaeda Krug sends the tennis ball back over the net from her backhand side during the Raiders’ first team practice on Aug. 8. Krug is the team’s most experienced varsity player and went 1-1 in singles play at the Baldwin-Woodville Quad on Saturday. Madison Clarkson is also pictured.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS