GNC awards at three flights for the Raiders

GNC GIRLS TENNIS

Medford junior Audrey Ruesch earned honorable mention for the second straight season, though in a different role this time, and four more Raiders earned their firstever All-Great Northern Conference girls tennis honors Thursday during the league’s championship tournament held at Rhinelander.

Junior Natalie Preuss capped an unbeaten season in conference play in flight-four singles and earned a spot on the All-GNC first team with her 3-0 outing. Senior Madison Clarkson and sophomore Makenna Tlusty teamed up to get to the flight-three doubles championship and ultimately finish with All-GNC second-team honors.

Ruesch and senior Masaeda Krug took third in the competitive flight-one doubles bracket and went 2-1 for the day.

Overall, Medford scored 15 team points to tie Newman Catholic for fourth place in the tournament. Those 15 points gave the Raiders 67 overall for the season, good for fifth place in the GNC’s final 2023 standings, a one spot improvement over 2022. Preuss took full advantage of her first full season in the varsity lineup, going 7-0 in GNC dual-meet matches and then closing out her run to the first team on Thursday with three more straight-set wins. As the top seed, she swept eighthseeded Amanda Angelo of Phillips 6-0, 6-0 in the first round and had no trouble with Antigo senior Julia Volpentesta in the semifinals, winning 6-0, 6-2. In the championship, Preuss got pushed by Lakeland’s Ellie Baker but won 6-4, 6-4. Baker also gave Preuss a run, at least early, in their Sept. 14 dual match, but Preuss won that 7-5, 6-0.

Preuss is now 16-2 in number-four singles matches this year.

Krug and Ruesch were seeded fifth in the flight-one doubles bracket, but a 7-5, 6-3 win over fourth-seeded Julie Milbauer and Anabelle Arnold of Stevens Point Pacelli put them in position to win a GNC award and evened the score for the year after the Cardinals took a straightset win over Krug and Ruesch back on Aug. 17.

The Raiders’ top duo nearly put themselves in the final, but Lakeland’s Kristina Ouimette and Savannah Barton earned their second three-set win over Medford this season. The eventual champions took the semifinal match 4-6, 6-4, 10-7 and then beat Ava Sukanen and Molly Merrill of Newman 6-3, 6-2 in the championship.

Krug and Ruesch rebounded from the tough semifinal loss to win the thirdplace match 6-4, 6-3 over second-seeded Kayla Tessman and Karmen Lopez of Rhinelander, who they also beat back on Sept. 5.

Clarkson and Tlusty improved to 8-3 at number-three doubles and 13-3 overall with their run to Thursday’s flight-three final. Seeded second, they swept Kinley Fischer and Saige Stein of Phillips 6-0, 6-0 in the first round and took care of sixthseeded Teagan Turcotte and Willow VanDenHuevel 6-0, 6-3 in the semifinals. The Rhinelander duo upset third-seeded Fiona MacCarthy and Abby Hynes of Newman Catholic 7-5, 2-6, 10-4 in their first-round match and wound up finishing third.

In the final, top-seeded Alyssa Erickson and Lila Biller of Lakeland were 6-2, 6-1 winners over Clarkson and Tlusty.

Medford’s number-two doubles team of Grace Holmes and Indya Mann picked up a win in the tournament. Playing as the fourth seed, they beat the fifth-seeded team of Arianna Riley and Ivy Schlub of Phillips 6-4, 6-4 to advance to a semifinal match with top-seeded Ali Timmermann and Charley Cleveland of Lakeland. They had the T-Birds on the ropes, but Lakeland escaped 6-4, 4-6, 10-4 and went on to sweep second-seeded Naomi Stenstrom and Addison Puent of Newman 6-0, 6-0 in the championship. Third-set bad luck hit Holmes and Mann again in the third-place match. Third-seeded Evelyn Sawyer and Brooke Sisel of Rhinelander edged them 2-6, 6-2, 11-9 to earn the honorable mention spot.

Holmes and Mann lost 6-3, 6-3 to the Hodags early in the year and 6-3, 7-5 to Lakeland a week earlier.

The top three singles players in Medford’s lineup all had tough first-round matches.

In flight one, seventh-seeded Marcy Razink was defeated 6-0, 6-0 by secondseeded and eventual runner-up Tori Riopel of Rhinelander. Sixth-seeded Jaylin Machon fell to third-seeded Addie Schmitt of Newman Catholic 6-4, 6-0 in flight two. Schmitt wound up fourth at the end of the day. In flight three, sixthseeded Morgan Strebig was defeated by eventual third-place finisher Evelyn Herdrich of Newman 6-0, 6-1.

Lakeland went into the tournament with a six-point lead over Newman Catholic and widened that lead, scoring 28 points to finish with 104 and win the GNC championship. Stevens Point Pacelli was second for the day with 18 points and finished fourth overall with 74 points. Rhinelander totaled 16 points Tuesday but fell just short of catching Newman for second overall. The Cardinals held off the Hodags 85-82.

With Monday’s non-conference meet at Marshfield being rained out, Medford now moves into post-season play this coming Monday as one of the eight teams in the WIAA Division 1 Rhinelander subsectional. This is the first time since Medford has bumped up to Division 1 since 2006. The host Hodags and Lakeland will be there along with Wausau East, Wausau West, Marshfield, D.C. Everest and Merrill.

Flight one semifinalists and finalists in all other flights advance to the WIAA Division 1 Eau Claire Memorial sectional meet. There, flight-one semifinalists, flight-two champions and the top-scoring team qualify for state competition.

Masaeda Krug Hon. Mention

Audrey Ruesch Hon. Mention

Medford’s number-three doubles team of Madison Clarkson (l.) and Makenna Tlusty await a serve from Rhinelander’s team of Teagan Turcotte and Willow VanDenHeuvel during their semifinal match in Thursday’s GNC Tournament. Clarkson and Tlusty won this match 6-0, 6-3 to advance to the flight-three championship, where they lost to Lakeland’s Alyssa Erickson and Lila Biller.JEREMY MAYO/NORTHWOODS RIVER NEWS