School year’s first competition is a success

MEDFORD GIRLS TENNIS

The first Medford Raiders team to compete in the 2023-24 school year set a pretty good opening tone on Saturday.

The Raiders’ girls tennis team went 2-1 at the Baldwin-Woodville Quad, losing 5-2 to the host Blackhawks, taking care of Barron 5-2 and then rallying from behind to beat Amery 4-3.

The success was a big boost for a team that has some talent but doesn’t have a lot of varsity experience to start the fall.

“We had 11 girls that got their first varsity win,” head coach Jake 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.”

The win over Amery was certainly a highlight as the Warriors won three of the first four completed matches and won the first sets in two of the remaining three matches, which were in the third and fourth singles flights.

At number-three, senior Jaylin Machon was swept 6-0 in her first set against Lyla Stone, but she got back into it with a tense 7-6 second set win, which was clinched by taking the tiebreaker game 7-1. The two then went to a 10-point match tiebreaker, which Machon won 10-8.

At number-four, junior Natalie Preuss lost her first set to Charolette Stewart 6-4, but she evened things up with a 6-4 win in the second set. Preuss took the match tiebreaker 10-6. Senior Masaeda Krug won the flight-one singles match 7-5, 6-2 over Amery’s Jorja Ajer and the number-three doubles team of senior Marcy Razink and junior Lily Holmes was a 6-2, 6-2 winner.

“That was really cool to see,” Bucki said of that team win. “We were pretty evenly matched with Amery. I think they had more experience coming back than we did.”

Medford wasn’t far from winning that meet 6-1 or even 7-0. Marissa Fisk outlasted Raider Audrey Ruesch at number-two singles 6-3, 4-6, 10-8 and the team of Sala Hayes and Kelly Fern beat Medford’s Madison Clarkson and Hannah Dahl 6-3, 4-6, 10-6 in the number-one doubles match. In flighttwo doubles, Amery beat Medford’s team of Grace Holmes and Indya Mann, both juniors, 7-5, 6-4.

Barron got both number-one matches in that dual, but Medford won the rest of them to earn its 5-2 win.

In singles, Razink beat Makenna Roske 6-1, 6-0 in flight two, junior Rachel Daniels beat Becca Nelson 6-0, 6-1 in flight three and Machon beat Graycin Miller 6-4, 6-0 in flight four. Bucki said Krug got a beneficial match in flight one with Andrea Bechard, a sectional qualifier last fall who just kept making shots to keep points alive and won 6-4, 7-5.

“Masaeda would do everything right and that girl would just find a way,” Bucki said.

Senior Morgan Strebig and sophomore Makenna Tlusty teamed up for a 6-1, 6-0 win over Jorey Feidt and Angela Hilson at number-two doubles and Lily Holmes and Sydnie Peterson got a 6-1, 6-1 win for Medford at number-three doubles over Mackenzie Weltzin and Cassidy Herrmann.

Barron’s Ashlynn Mark and Zoey Frandsen reversed a 6-1 loss to Clarkson and Dahl in set one and won the next two 6-4, 10-4 to take the number-one doubles match.

A solid, experienced Baldwin-Woodville squad won two matches that went to tiebreakers to secure its 5-2 win over the Raiders.

Ruesch played an excellent numberone singles match with Maggie Jensen, but Jensen pulled it out 4-6, 6-2, 10-7. The other tiebreaker was at number-two doubles where Abigail Nilssen and Lola Peavey beat Grace Holmes and Mann 6-7 (10), 6-0, 10-8.

Medford’s wins came from Tlusty, who beat Salem Tumax 6-1, 6-3 at four singles, and the team of Dahl and Peterson, who beat Allison Forbes and Mia Voorhees 6-1, 6-2 at three doubles.

Shannon Fritts downed Daniels 6-3, 6-1 at two singles, Jacque Kroening beat Strebig 6-2, 6-0 at three singles and Kylie Kastel and Mallory Hable beat Krug and Clarkson 6-1, 6-3 in the number-one doubles match.

Baldwin-Woodville finished 3-0 for the day, Amery was 1-2 and Barron was 0-3.

Upcoming schedule

Medford will get plenty of early-season work before school even starts, assuming the nice late-summer weather continues. The Raiders open Great Northern Conference play today, Thursday, at Stevens Point Pacelli and goes to Phillips Tuesday for another GNC meet. The Raiders will see lots of good competition at the two-day Altoona Invitational Aug. 25-26, host D.C. Everest in a non-conference meet Aug. 29 and return to GNC play at Newman Catholic in Wausau on Aug. 31.