Tennis season ends at tough Eau Claire Memorial sectional

WIAA DIV. 1 GIRLS TENNIS

The Medford Raiders’ girls tennis season ended on Oct. 5 against some tough competition at the WIAA Division 1 Eau Claire Memorial sectional meet, held at the Menard Tennis Center.

The number-one doubles team of Masaeda Krug and Audrey Ruesch had a shot at qualifying for state with an upset win in the quarterfinal round of that flight. That upset, however, did not happen as New Richmond’s team of seniors Lily Brinkman and Bella Baillargeon were just too good in a 6-1, 6-1 win.

Brinkman and Baillargeon kept on winning, taking all three of their matches to win the flight one sectional championship. They beat Menomonie’s Isa Gamez and Sam Jacobsen 7-5, 6-2 in the semifinals and Eau Claire Memorial’s Livy Parrett and Olivia Zavaleta 3-6, 6-2, 10-8 in an excellent championship match. The Tigers enter state tournament play today, Thursday at 26-3. Krug, a senior, and Ruesch, a junior, finished the year 11-7 when they played together.

Krug ends a fouryear varsity career, while Ruesch should return next year as a two-time honorable mentionee in the Great Northern Conference and a two-time sectional qualifier.

Medford junior Natalie Preuss wasn’t eligible for state, but she entered the day as one of four candidates to win the flight-four singles sectional championship. But her year ended at 18-4 with a pair of losses.

In the semifinal round, top-seed and eventual champion Lucy Willems, an Eau Claire Memorial freshman, defeated Preuss 6-1, 6-2. Marshfield senior Ashley Grancorvitz (27-5) swept Preuss 6-0, 6-0 in the third-place match. Willems (30-2) beat Menomonie’s Isabel Sorenson 6-1, 3-6, 10-7 in the championship. Sorenson (156) beat Grancorvitz 6-2, 6-2 in the other semifinal.

Preuss ended a fine first varsity season as a Great Northern Conference champion in flight four and she won both of her subsectional matches to get to the sectional meet.

Medford stayed stuck at eight team points for the post-season week, putting it in 10th in the final team standings. Eau Claire Memorial won the sectional title and the berth in the Oct. 20-21 WIAA Division 1 team state tournament in Madison with 45 points, nine better than Wausau West. Hudson was third with 27 points, followed by Menomonie (18), Lakeland (16), Marshfield (15), Rhinelander (13), Eau Claire North (12), New Richmond (10) and Medford.

Rice Lake (7), D.C. Everest (6), Superior (2), Wausau East (2), Chippewa Falls (0), Merrill (0) and River Falls (0) filled out the team-score list.

The Great Northern Conference qualified Rhinelander’s Tori Riopel (23-12) for state with a third-place finish at number- one singles. Lakeland’s number-one doubles team of Kristina Ouimette and Savannah Barton (17-5) lost its opening match but it was added to the state field as a special qualifier.

In Thursday’s WIAA Division 2 Altoona sectional, also held at the Menard Center, the Great Northern Conference did not qualify anyone for state. However, Stevens Point Pacelli’s Natalie Cooper (18-6) was added to the state singles tournament bracket and Newman Catholic’s Ava Sukanen and Molly Merrill were added to the doubles field as special qualifiers.

The WIAA individual state tournament is today, Thursday, through Saturday in Madison.

Medford finished the 2023 season with a 14-11 dual-meet record and finished fifth in the Great Northern Conference.