MEDFORD BOYS TENNIS - Raiders pick up two wins to cap duals; GNC meet, WIAA play are up next

MEDFORD BOYS TENNIS

The Medford Raiders may have built at least a little momentum heading into Friday’s Great Northern Conference championship tournament with wins in their last two league dual meets.

An often-postponed meet at last-place and short-handed Stevens Point Pacelli was finally played Monday in Point with Medford winning 7-0. There were just three contested matches.

Medford put its top two singles players together for the number-one doubles match. Brayden Balciar and Conner Klingbeil had no trouble winning that match, downing Marcus Lansing and Hunter Wrezinski 6-1, 6-1.

Typically, Medford’s flight-three and flight-four singles players, Cale Schulz and Jude Stark filled the number-two doubles position Monday and swept Josh Opaneye and Chad Ellingson 6-0, 6-0.

Parker Hill went out of his normal doubles spot and filled the number-one singles slot. He defeated Dominic Kroening 6-0, 6-0.

Mason Reimann, Keagan Gehrke and Cole Zenner were credited with forfeit wins in singles play. Blaine Searles and Christian Preuss got a forfeit at numberthree doubles.

In another rescheduled meet, Medford earned four straight-set wins while defeating host Ashland on Thursday afternoon.

Balciar cruised to a 6-0, 6-1 win over Harry Diesburg in flight-one singles, Klingbeil shut out Adrian Erickson 6-0, 6-0 at flight two and Schulz defeated Ben Snyder 6-3, 6-0 at number-three singles.

Searles and Preuss got the all-important fourth win for Medford as they took down Ashland’s Colton Pupp and Aidan Ellet-Cardinal 6-1, 6-2.

Medford came close to a fifth win. In flight-two doubles, Gehrke and Zenner took the first set against Toryn McFarlane and Benj McPherson 6-2, but the Oredockers’ team rallied after that, winning the next two sets 6-1, 6-4 to take the match.

Stark won his first set 7-5 over Danny Kelley at number-four singles, but Kelley got on a roll that couldn’t be stopped after that, winning the next two sets 6-0, 6-0.

At number-one doubles, Ashland’s state-caliber duo of Austin Vyskocil and Bodee Mikkonen swept Reimann and Hill 6-0, 6-0.

Medford finished 3-2 in GNC duals. With 40 points, the Raiders are most likely locked into third place as the league season ends Friday. The GNC meet was postponed a day to hopefully take advantage of better weather. Rhinelander holds a 58-52 lead over Lakeland in the points race heading into today’s tournament at Rhinelander.

The tournament could be highlighted by some competitive battles in the number-one singles flight where Balciar, Lakeland’s Dominic Gironella, Antigo’s Nolan Bunnell and Rhinelander’s John Currie are all capable of winning it. Klingbeil is the favorite in flight two after going 5-0 in the duals and is sitting at 10-1 overall in singles play this season.

WIAA Division 2 tournament play starts Tuesday with the Altoona subsectional. There, flight-one semifinalists and finalists in all other flights advance to the May 23 Eau Claire Regis subsectional, where the top scoring team, flight-one semifinalists and flight-two champions all qualify for state competition.

Hodags 5, Raiders 2

In Medford’s home finale for 2024 on May 8, the Raiders gave GNC-leading Rhinelander a fight, but the Hodags won two close singles that could’ve gone either way to get out of town with a 5-2 win.

Schulz had the highlight win of the meet for Medford, battling for a comefrom-behind 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win at numberthree singles over Payton McCue. Schulz got on a roll while winning the second set and then building a 5-1 lead in the third. McCue made a run, but Schulz held him off by winning a deuce point in the final game and preventing McCue from tying the set.

Klingbeil was a 6-1, 6-1 winner over Nick Lesch in flight two to remain unbeaten in conference play and go to 9-1 overall at the time.

The number-one singles match between Balciar and Currie was well-played and hard-fought with both sets going to tiebreakers. Currie won both tiebreakers 7-5 and 7-4 to take the match 7-6, 7-6. The number-four match also was tight. Zacha King came up with winning points at key times and outlasted Stark 6-4, 6-4.

Medford’s number-three doubles team of Preuss and Searles got better as the match went on and pushed Karter Massey and Hart Hokens, but the Hodags won 6-3, 6-4. Gavin Denis and Michael Schiek beat Egle and Gehrke in flight two 6-1, 7-5. Dalton Fritz and Dawson Pontell beat Reimann and Hill in flight one 6-0, 6-1.