By Star Journal Staff

The Great Northern Conference tennis meet was held in Antigo on Saturday but with only eight courts, there was not enough day light for the championship matches for 1 and 2 singles, as well as 1 and 2 doubles. Those contests were played Monday at the Wausau West High School courts on Monday afternoon.

The Hodags No. 4 singles player, Kelsie Winter placed 4th as did the No. 3 doubles team of Shayla Coppenger and Olivia Jones. Tori Riopel, the No. 3 singles player was able to finish her championship match with the match going to a tie-breaker that Riopel won 10-6 earning her First Team All-Conference.

The top two flights of singles and doubles were postponed until Monday.

Having already won the conference team championship after the first round of games on Saturday, all that remained were  championship matches. At No. 2 doubles Kylee Younker and Helena Wisner played Stevens Point Pacelli and lost, giving the duo second place and Second Team All-Conference honors. The same went for Taylor Riopel and Paige Oleinik, who took on last year’s conference champions at No. 1 doubles from Pacelli.

At the No. 2 singles match Kaylee Pontell was looking to keep her conference undefeated record intact. Pontell started slow but won her match with 6-3 and 6-0 wins.

At No. 1 singles Annika Johnson was also attempting to remain undefeated in conference against Wausau Newman’s Becky Larrain. Larrain’s only loss on the season was to Johnson. The match had very many long points; it was the first to start and last to finish.

The first game went Johnson’s way as she won 6-2. The second game was just the opposite as Larrain came from behind and won 2-6. That forced the match to a super tie-breaker to 10 points. Johnson earned the first 2 points on Larrain errors. Johnson would go on to win the tie-breaker 10-2 and be the conference champion, First Team All-Conference and Conference Singles Player of the Year.

Photos by Bob Mainhardt.

<

►

>

The last backhand volley by Annika Johnson was not returned by Becky Larrain giving Johnson her 10th point in the tiebreaker earning her First Team All Conference honors as well as the singles conference player of the year award.