Photo by Justin Webb
The Orange women’s tennis team won’t have any more matches this season, but they’ll still have a practice this afternoon.
It’ll be held solely for the sake to be around each other, which they’ve enjoyed from the very beginning of a two-year odyssey where they’ve traveled many places together without a court to call home most of the time. And accomplished unprecedented things along the way.
The Durham School of the Arts ended Orange’s run in the 5A State Playoffs with a 6-0 win at Orange High Tennis Courts in the 5A State Quarterfinals on Wednesday. Giselle Cowden, Yunah Park, Lucia Harrington, Sadie Miller, Ruby Free and Ella Werley swept the six singles matches for the Bulldogs, who will face Big 7 Conference rival Seaforth for the Eastern Regional Championship next week.
Durham School of the Arts (16-8) defeated Orange for the third time this season.
The Orange senior class of Molly Kruse, Casey Robinson, Adelyn Alvis, Kyla Mehl, Oakley Gaddy, Lindsay Woodell, Evelyn Gover, Bailey Macomson and Abilene Loter won 61 matches over the past four years for Orange. They won four state playoff matches, starting with the 2022 victory at First Flight where the team had to drive over four hours by busy each way.
Last year, the senior class hosted a state playoff match for the first time in school history, even though they didn’t have a home court to play on for the most to the season because it was being renovated. Orange defeated Northern Nash 5-2 behind wins from Gaddy, Alvis, Robinson in singles play. Alvis and Robinson teamed to clinch the match with a win in doubles, along with singles wins from Shannon Sollars and Kalynn Mason.
Just days after the renovations were completed last year, cracks started to appear on the court. That forced officials to start the renovations all over again and Orange spent the entire regular season on the road, practicing at the Duke School in Durham with home matches at Cedar Ridge High, Chapel Hill High and in downtown Mebane.
Finishing 15-6, this year’s team fell just short of tying the 2021 team for most wins in a season. They were the first team to ever reach the state quarterfinals in team history.
