MEDFORD BOYS TENNIS PREVIEW - Numbers are up; team’s search for best lineup is underway

MEDFORD BOYS TENNIS PREVIEW

Graduation put some noticeable dents in the lineups for teams like Medford and Rhinelander, but, from the Raiders’ point of view, there is optimism they can still be competitive during the 2025 boys tennis season.

The Raiders have 16 players out under fourth-year head coach Kyle Ranum, only two of which are seniors. They aren’t necessarily inexperienced with a handful of players who filled varsity spots at the end of 2024 returning.

But Ranum said there will be spots where the Raiders will be a bit green to start the season.

“We’ll have some learning to do,” Ranum said Monday. “I don’t know how well we’re going to perform as far as results in duals, but I’m not concerned about dual results. I’m concerned about being young and inexperienced, so we just have to keep getting better individually from meet to meet to meet. We’re going to play agains teams that are just going to have more experience. Not to say that we won’t win matches.”

After a first week of practice where the Raiders were able to practice outdoors all five days –– a rarity for these parts –– Medford got its first competition of the season Saturday with three dual meets at the Baldwin-Woodville Quad. The Raiders lost 52 to Osceola and 4-3 to Lakeland while the dual with the host Blackhawks was entered as a 3-3 tie with JV players filling the four-singles spot.

It was cold and windy, especially early, but Ranum said the team’s play improved as the weather improved.

“We competed well in all the flights,” he said. “We lost to Lakeland who forfeited two classes. But I played kids out of positions to get them experience, and that might’ve been the difference in that dual.”

Medford lost 5-2 at Marshfield Tuesday in non-conference play and visits another Wisconsin Valley squad Wausau East today, Thursday, at 4 p.m. Medford heads west again Saturday for what will hopefully be a warmer day at the Amery Quad.

Among Medford’s losses to graduation were Brayden Balciar and Conner Klingbeil, who had outstanding 2024 seasons in the top two singles flights. Balciar finished third in the GNC and advanced to the WIAA Division 2 sectional meet. Klingbeil was the GNC champion in flight two. Caleb Egle was another senior who got an All-GNC honorable mention award in doubles and Jude Stark was a solid player at number-four singles.

Realistically, the Raiders don’t have players of Balciar’s or Klingbeil’s caliber to start the year. But there may be some lineup versatility to work with and certainly enough ability to win matches. Senior Cale Schulz and junior Parker Hill should be among the team leaders, Ranum said. Schulz was an All-GNC second-team performer last spring at numberthree singles and Hill has been a key doubles piece for Medford’s lineup the past two years. “I played them together at one-doubles against Baldwin just to get them games under their belt in case we want to go in that direction moving forward,” Ranum said. “But them being split up at one and two singles gives us our best lineup with Cale at one and Parker at two. Both performed pretty well (Saturday). Cale had a really tough match against a kid who’s a state level player in Dominic (Gironella) from Lakeland. Parker played a kid (Jack Stepec) who’s been at two singles for three years and this is Parker’s first year playing singles. He took him to 6-3, 6-3, so that’s pretty good.”

Senior Mason Reimann is back after he got a lot of match time last year. He and Hill finished last spring as Medford’s top doubles duo.

Junior Cole Zenner and sophomore Blaine Searles are two ascending players, according to Ranum. Zenner played matches at one and two singles Saturday. Searles was part of winning doubles teams in all three dual meets, including two matches in flight one with Reimann.

Sophomores Christian Preuss and Ethan Kollmansberger also return from last year’s varsity lineup. Preuss and Searles were the honorable mention number-three doubles team in the GNC last May.

“Mason Reimann will probably play doubles, and maybe get some singles spot duty depending on the situation,” Ranum said. “Cole Zenner could be a pretty high level doubles player for us, probably two or one doubles depending on the matchup. Blaine Searles. He played two matches at flight-one doubles, won both, then he played a number-two match and they won that. For a sophomore that’s all you can ask for. I played him there out of necessity and because of the results, he may have to play there moving forward. Ethan and Christian will be contributors as well. They’re going to be higher flight kids for us.”

Cash Thums is a sophomore addition to the squad who broke into the lineup Saturday. Sophomore Axl Spanbauer was in the doubles lineup as well and got a win with Kollmansberger.

Filling out this year’s roster are juniors Reuben Barnhart and Jaeden Brandner, sophomores Hudson Crabb and Robert Ruedinger and freshmen Ethan Jones, Carter Zenner, Thomas Austin and Kyllian Dellich. Jones and Zenner made the trip with the varsity Saturday.

Ranum said this is the largest roster he’s started a year with in his four seasons as head coach.

In the GNC, Rhinelander is the defending champion and the Hodags are always a favorite. The Hodags did lose five players who were first-team All-GNC players last year. They also bring back three players who were first-team doubles players.

Though Lakeland played short-handed Saturday, the Thunderbirds could be a team to watch, Ranum said, because they are senior-dominated. Medford was third in the GNC last season.

“Lakeland has two second-place conference returners at one and two singles and they moved over their highlevel doubles players into the singles lineup,” he said. “They looked good Saturday playing singles. They’ll compete with Rhinelander.

“We always play Rhinelander tough,” he added. “We always seem to be 2-5 or 34 against them every year even when they’re way better than us. We’ll see how that goes this year.”

Unfortunately, the conference won’t have what used to be one of its top programs, Antigo. The Red Robins are unable to field a team this year. Ashland was fourth in the GNC a year ago and Stevens Point Pacelli was sixth behind Antigo.

The GNC season consists of just a single round-robin format for dual meets. The conference tournament will be held May 22 at Lakeland.

For the WIAA post-season, Medford is in a Division 2 subsectional at Lakeland on Tuesday, May 27 and then qualifiers play in the sectional meet hosted by Altoona two days later.

“We’ve said let’s not focus on winning and losing necessarily,” Ranum said. “Of course we want to win. But that’s not going to be an indicator of our progress. We want kids to just get better with every match.”

Medford sophomore and returning letter winner Cooper Klingbeil lifts a chip shot on to the putting green at Black River Golf Course Tuesday afternoon. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS