For the Antigo Times

Beating out the rival Rhinelander Hodags by seven conference points, the Antigo Lady Robins tennis team claimed its first ever Great Northern Conference title this past week with a season total of 159 points.

The Robins title win marks the end of a seven-year GNC championship run for the Hodags.

The Hodags, who trailed the Red Robins by four points in the score for dual meet matches (124-120) going into the conference tournament, dropped behind the top spot by three more points Saturday with Antigo ending up with the top tournament score of 35, followed by RHS (32), Medford (20), Lakeland (10) Columbus Catholic (6) and Phillips (2). That gave Antigo 159 total conference points with RHS in second at 152 and Medford a distant third with 100.
Of the four singles divisions, the Hodags placed first in two of them and runner-up in the other two that were won by the Red Robins.

RHS’s Emma Roberts won the No. 3 title over Antigo’s Ellie Kelly and the Hodags’ Kenedy Van Zile defeated the Red Robins’ Avery Nicholson to place first in No. 4 singles.

Antigo’s Maya Gaedtke topped RHS’s Belinda Weddle in No. 1 singles. The Red Robins’ Izzy Matuszewski defeated the Hodags’ Alex Oestreich in No. 2 singles.

RHS also topped one of the three doubles divisions at the conference tournament with Madi Losch and Alexis Pyrchalla placing first in No. 2 doubles.

The Hodags’ two other doubles pairs, Haley Seefeldt and Livi Roberts (No. 1) and Jackie Wells and Savannah Chartier (No. 3), both ended up in third place. The Red Robins’ Taylor Arrowood and Abby Robrecht (No. 1) and Samantha Belling and Jenna Lenzner (No. 3) placed first in their respective doubles divisions.

The exceptional performance earned Coach Aimee Hein the GNC Coach of the Year title, while Maya Gaedtke, playing at No. 1 singles, earned the conference Player of the Year award in the Lady Robins record setting season.

Editor’s Note: Stats and matchup information provided by the Rhinelander Star Journal.