MEDFORD BOYS TENNIS - Medford’s singles sweep beats East; team goes 1-2 at Altoona quad

MEDFORD BOYS TENNIS

Medford’s boys tennis team got its third dual-meet win of the season Monday, sweeping the singles matches en route to a 4-3 non-conference win over Wausau East on the MASH courts.

None of those singles matches were highly competitive. The best match of the evening came at number-two doubles where Medford’s Caleb Egle and Keagan Gehrke rebounded from a 6-1 first-set loss to Vincent Newman-Knuckles and Carter Clements by taking the second set 6-1.

The teams then played a 10-point match tiebreaker. East’s team broke a 5-5 tie with three straight points. The Raiders didn’t quit and got it back to even at 9-9 before the Lumberjacks got the next two points to win 11-9.

In the singles sweep, Medford’s Brayden Balciar had no trouble with Elliot Harding in flight one 6-1, 6-0. Conner Klingbeil took the number-two match over Ivan Lawler 6-1, 6-1. Cale Schulz eased past Chaz Weiss in flight three 6-0, 6-1 and Jude Stark picked up a 6-1, 6-0 win over Tim Hughes in flight four.

East got a 6-3, 6-0 win from its numberone doubles team of Andrew Franklin and Sully Hanz. They beat Mason Reimann and Parker Hill. In flight-three play, Julio Florres and Matthias Clements beat Medford’s Cole Zenner and Christian Preuss 6-2, 6-2.

Medford now is 3-10 overall. Tuesday’s home dual meet with Great Northern Conference-leading Rhinelander was pushed back to Wednesday due to the wet weather and was played after the deadline for The Star News.

Wet weather has made it hard for Medford to get GNC duals in this spring. At just 1-1, the Raiders hope to get their meet with Ashland, postponed April 23, in today, Thursday and are scheduled to try yet again at Stevens Point Pacelli on Monday after several changes with that meet.

The GNC’s championship tournament is set for May 16 at Rhinelander, starting at 9 a.m.

Altoona Quad

The Raiders went 1-2 at Friday’s Altoona Quad, earning a win over the Ashland Oredockers while losing to Lakeland and the host Railroaders.

Featuring a talented yet still very young team, Altoona won the tournament by going 3-0, including a 7-0 sweep of Medford. The Railroaders beat Medford with a lineup that consisted of eight sophomores, one freshman and one senior.

In singles play, sophomore Carter Drescher handed Klingbeil his first loss of the season in a good flight-two match 4-6, 6-3, 10-8. Sophomore Trenton Navarre swept Balciar 6-0, 6-4 in flight one, freshman Conner Grower beat Schulz 6-1, 6-4 in flight three and sophomore Jacob Turgeson beat Stark 6-1, 6-2 in flight four.

Sophomores Tegan Bennett and Jaxton Semrow beat Reimann and Hill 6-0, 6-3, sophomores Daylen Parks and Lucas Pederson swept Gehrke and Zenner in flight-two doubles 6-0, 6-0 and senior Brandon Spies and sophomore Isaiah Yi swept Preuss and Ethan Kollmansberger in flight three 6-0, 6-0.

Altoona also beat Ashland 6-1 and Lakeland 5-2.

Medford’s win over Ashland included a sweep of the singles matches and a victory for Gehrke and Zenner at numbertwo doubles. They held off a late push to get the match to a tiebreaker set and beat Toryn McFarlane and Benj McPherson 6-2, 7-6 (5).

Balciar had to rally to get his flight-one singles match to a tiebreaker set. He won that 10-3 to close out his match with Harry Diesburg that was 2-6, 6-3 in the first two sets. Klingbeil was pushed to a tiebreaker in his first set with Ben Snyder in flight two, but he won that 7-5 to take the set 7-6 and then he took charge in the second set, closing out the win 6-1.

Schulz took care of Adrian Erickson 6-1, 6-1 in flight three and Stark won a good match with Danny Kelley 6-4, 6-2.

Ashland’s Austin Vyskocil and Bodee Mikkonen, state qualifiers a year ago, beat Reimann and Hill 6-0, 6-1. At number-three doubles, Ryan O’Bey and Aidan Ellet-Cardinal rallied to knock off Preuss and Kollmansberger 4-6, 6-4, 10-6.

Medford lost 5-2 to GNC rival Lakeland. Giving the Thunderbirds a different look in this non-conference matchup, Balciar and Klingbeil teamed up to fill the number- one doubles spot and they did well, taking care of Gage Bowe and Yaroslav Myshchyshyn 6-2, 6-2. Schulz and Stark also got a rare chance to play doubles together and they won in flight two over Isaac Olson and Kade Christie 6-0, 6-1.

Lakeland’s Sawyer Brown and Tyler Wallace beat Preuss and Blaine Searles in flight three 6-0, 6-2.

The moves left the Raiders a bit thin in the singles department, where they got swept. Dominic Gironella beat Reimann 6-0, 6-0, Jack Stepec beat Hill 6-2, 6-0, Mika Rempp swept Gehrke 6-0, 6-0 and August Callender edged Kollmansberger 6-2, 6-4.