MEDFORD BOYS TENNIS PREVIEW - Finding right doubles pairs is top priority early for Medford tennis

MEDFORD BOYS TENNIS PREVIEW

The top two singles spots and the top doubles positions were known coming into the season for Medford’s boys tennis team. Who fits where from there will hopefully come into focus in the next week or two.

Had the season started a couple of weeks earlier, third-year head coach Kyle Ranum and second-year assistant Cullen Peterson would’ve had a good opportunity to get on the courts and see what they have in this year’s 16-member squad, which features a pretty even mix of experienced players and new additions.

But spring, fickle as it always is in northern Wisconsin, left temporarily just in time for the March 25 official start to the season, which put the evaluation process on hold. The Raiders actually have competed in meets outside more than they’ve practiced outside, going 0-3 in their first three duals with 5-2 losses to Marshfield, Osceola and Baldwin-Woodville.

“I like how competitive we’ve been in these matches considering this will be our third practice outside,” Ranum said just as Monday’s practice was getting started. “That’s encouraging that they’ve been able to compete with some pretty decent teams thus far.”

Medford had a solid 2023 season, finishing second in the Great Northern Conference with a 6-2 dual-meet record and 93 points. The Raiders were well ahead of third-place Lakeland (71) and well behind league champion Rhinelander (142). The Raiders were 8-6 overall.

Medford hosted Lakeland Tuesday in a pivotal GNC opener and fell 5-2. Ranum expects Medford and Lakeland to be the top contenders for second place if Rhinelander, as most expect, pulls away from the pack for another GNC championship.

Through one week of competition, the singles lineup was starting to come into focus for the coaches.

“We’re still trying to figure out our lineup, especially in doubles,” Ranum said. “We have quite a bit of experienced singles players that have come back this year from last year but we only have a couple of guys who played doubles last year.”

Topping the singles lineup are returning seniors Brayden Balciar and Conner Klingbeil.

This will be Balciar’s second year filling the top flight. He had a solid 9-5 season in 2023 and finished second at number-one singles in the GNC. He held the third seed in subsectional meet, but his bid to reach the sectional ended in an upset loss to Nolan Bunnell of Antigo.

Balciar played well in losses to Marshfield’s Kai Rens and Osceola’s Gavin Almlie, a Division 2 state qualifier last spring, and soundly defeated Baldwin-Woodville’s Aidan Freer to start the year. He lost to Lakeland’s Dominic Gironella Tuesday, who he also beat in two hardfought matches last year in GNC play.

“My top two guys are really good as expected,” Ranum said. “They had one loss between them from this weekend. Brayden lost to a really, really good Osceola number-one. Conner won all of his matches. He’s probably going to be the class of the conference (at number-two).”

Klingbeil went 13-3 a year ago at number-three singles. He’s off to a 4-0 start while bumping up to number-two this year.

“He got third at sectionals last year as a second-year player who had never played singles before,” Ranum said. “He just has a good combination of athleticism and a general understanding of the game. This is only his third year. He’s only done this since his sophomore year.”

The other spot in the lineup that was known coming into the year was number- one doubles, which is filled by junior Mason Reimann and sophomore Parker Hill. They played together for the majority of the 2023 season, mostly in flight two, but they did end the year as Medford’s number-one team. “They got five games off a really good Baldwin team,” Ranum said. “I was really impressed with how they played in the last match this weekend. Huge improvement there from them.” Jude Stark is Medford’s third returning senior letter winner. He played tennis for the first time last year and filled a doubles role. Ranum could see Stark playing either doubles or singles. Junior Cale Schulz was another first-time player last year who filled a doubles role. He moved to singles Saturday and may have found a home there with his 1-1 day in two competitive matches.

A new senior this year, Caleb Egle, is likely to play at number-two doubles. The coaches are hoping to settle in on his partner in the next few days. In the first three meets he played with Schulz, Stark and sophomore Keagan Gehrke, another returning letter winner from 2023, who got time last year at four-singles and threedoubles.

“Caleb’s new but he has some skills,” Ranum said. “He’s been playing in the summer with these guys and it shows. He’s not a guy that has no clue. He has some power we just need to harness it a bit.

Ranum said sophomore Cole Zenner has looked like one of the team’s most improved players from a year ago in the early going.

“Cole Zenner has done a really good job of getting in shape, getting stronger and he’s very competitive,” Ranum said. “He might be a number-three doubles guy.”

Ethan Kollmansberger and Christian Preuss are the two freshmen that have made the most impact this far, cracking the varsity lineup in early meets. Blaine Searles won the number-four singles match against Marshfield.

“Christian Preuss has improved a ton in just these first two weeks,” Ranum said. “Ethan is good. He’s got a chance to end up being our normal four singles. He’s got some good ground strokes.” Sophomore Jaeden Brandner returns from a year ago. The opening 2024 roster also includes Isaac and Reuben Barnhart and Ashton Wehe.

“We’re still a work in progress,” Ranum said. “We have to fill in the doubles spots. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

Ashland has joined Great Northern Conference this year, making it a six-team league and changing the scheduling format from a double round-robin to a single round-robin to assure teams get enough of the non-conference matches they want. But, it also puts more importance on matches like Tuesday’s Lakeland/Medford dual.

“The way it used to be, if you didn’t do well the first time, you’d go back and change things up and maybe win the second dual,” Ranum said.

The Raiders won’t see Rhinelander until May 7 in the last of their five GNC duals. Rhinelander is the site for this year’s GNC tournament on May 16. Medford’s schedule shows some good non-conference competition at this Saturday’s Amery Quad, an April 20 dual with Eau Claire Regis, a May 6 dual with Wausau East and the May 3 Altoona Quad. Altoona hosts this year’s WIAA Division 2 subsectional meet May 21, while Regis hosts the sectional on May 23.