Month: September 2021

The first Orange Panther of the Week for the 2021-2022 academic year in senior outside hitter Ella Van Tiem. On August 16, the Lady Panthers captured its season opener by beating Jordan 3-2 on scores of 25-18, 17-25, 25-20, 22-25, 15-13. Van Tiem had 15 kills, six blocks and 15 digs. It was an impressive win for Orange considering they were without two of its top players. Van Tiem returned to the court on Wednesday night as Orange defeated Southern Alamance 3-1 on Wednesday night in Graham. Then in its Central Carolina Conference opener on Thursday night, Orange rolled past Walter Williams 3-0 in Hillsborough. That sets up a huge matchup on Tuesday when Orange squares off against undefeated Cedar Ridge on Tuesday night at Red Wolves Gymnasium. Last season, Van Tiem played in five matches. With Lottie Scully in the lineup, Van Tiem had a different role with Orange. In the opening three matches of 2021, Van Tiem has proved to be a reliable finisher as Orange is off to a 3-0 start, 1-0 in league play. In addition to Cedar Ridge on Tuesday, Orange will also host Person next week.

Photo by Aidan Jensen

The chase for the Central Carolina Conference volleyball championship figures to be a horse race this year.

When you’re in a horse race, you want to be riding a thoroughbred. And that’s the rub for the challengers to Cedar Ridge right now.

Cedar Ridge doesn’t have only one thoroughbred.

If there was one lesson in January’s loss to D.H. Conley in the 3A State Playoffs, it was that the Red Wolves needed more finishers. The Vikings had an endless supply of outside blockers, most over 6-feet tall, who could slam the ball off the hardwood effortlessly.

The Red Wolves have spent the opening weeks of the 2020-2021 season showing they learned their lesson from last winter very well. The Person Rockets, a traditional power with a reputation that proceeds them, found themselves on the receiving end for a change Tuesday night.

The Red Wolves defeated the Rockets 3-0 on scores of 26-24, 25-23 and 25-15 at Cedar Ridge Gymnasium. Cedar Ridge junior Cameron Lloyd, the daughter of Joel and Sherri Lloyd of White Cross, finished with 19 kills, four aces and 12 digs, while Cameron Lanier had ten kills, including the final spike on match point. Julie Altieri, who is nearing 1,000 assists for her career, finished with 31 assists.

Cedar Ridge (6-0, 1-0 in the Central Carolina Conference) handed Person its first 3-0 loss since October 10, 2019, when they fell to McMichael. It was only the third time Person has been swept since 2018.

In its last 98 matches, the Rockets are now 84-14.

“She (Lloyd) did phenomenal tonight,” said Cedar Ridge coach Fiona Cunningham, who improved her mark to 15-1. “She’s someone you can depend on in all six rotations on the court. It really makes and breaks the team when it gets tight as who can step up and take the swings.”

Both teams were clearly anxious to open the match as there were several service errors early. Cedar Ridge built a 19-12 lead in the opening set behind six kills from Lloyd. The Rockets went on a 10-2 run to even the frame at 21-21 after a kill by senior Jacie Kennedy. After Person’s Lillie Davis had a flash kill to tie the match at 24-24, Cedar Ridge took the lead after a Rocket serve went into the net. Altieri, who usually sets up kills, delivered one of her own on set point off an assist from libero Grace Young to take the opening frame.

The second set was another tight one. The Red Wolves opened up a 12-7 lead behind four kills from junior Melissa Benkowitz. Person went on a 7-2 run late in the set to even things at 23-23. That’s when Lloyd came up with consecutive huge plays. She received a Person service and scored a kill off an assist from Altieri. On set point, Lloyd lofted a serve that touched the back line for an ace, and Cedar Ridge led 2-0.

The Red Wolves were fresher in the third set. Five differed Cedar Ridge players recorded kills. The point of the match came with Cedar Ridge leading 15-9. It appeared that Kennedy had spiked home a winner for the Rockets, but Young placed her hand on the floor. The ball rebounded off Young’s hand straight to Altieri. Meanwhile, the Person players started celebrating thinking they had won the point. Cedar Ridge didn’t stop playing and Lloyd ultimately notched yet another kill.

Lanier, who had six kills and one block in the third set, scored match point for Cedar Ridge, who won 25-15.

“We’ve been working all year in getting our offense to be more diverse,” Cunningham said. “When we play relaxed, like we did in the third set, they’re really comfortable with running that diverse offense. It’s when you see who we trust to take the swings when we’re a little bit tight.”

Cedar Ridge will travel to Northwood on Thursday.

Ever get thrown off your routine? Have an interruption after setting your daily schedule by the weekday? By the hour?

Of course, you have. That’s been the theme of the past 21 months.

The pandemic has taken away time and tossed all of our collective schedules into the dumpster. Including this website.

In 2019-2020, there was a feature called the Magnificent 7 that honored seven athletes from Cedar Ridge and Orange High Schools for outstanding performances. Once the high school season finally got going last year, it was hard to compile a Magnificent 7 because the schedules were so thrown out of whack. There were games scheduled with less than 24 hours notice, games canceled with virtually no notice, and shutdowns where teams wouldn’t practice for days.

Things are slowly changing, but as you know, we’re far from out of the woods. On Tuesday, the Western Alamance football team had to reschedule a football game against Eastern Guilford because its previous opponent had a COVID outbreak. The Orange volleyball team will return to action after a COVID shutdown on Wednesday night against Southern Alamance in Graham.

Still, five varsity sports have started at Orange, with men’s and women’s cross country set to begin this weekend. At Cedar Ridge, there’s been a spectacular start for volleyball and women’s tennis, which are both undefeated. So it’s time to get back to the routine of the Magnificent 7. The best athletic performances through the opening two weeks of the season. We’ll do our best to diversify this list because some performers (Cameron Lloyd) are excelling game in and game out, we run the risk of being repetitive.

Here are the opening Magnificent 7 from the opening two weeks of the year:

Cameron Lloyd: Seriously, the entire list could be comprised of Cedar Ridge volleyball players. After beating Person 3-0 on Tuesday night, the Red Wolves have opened the season by winning its first 18 sets. Lloyd leads the team in kills with 49 kills through the opening five matches. So far, her season-high is 16 in the victory over defending 3A State Champion D.H. Conley on August 20. Against Carrboro on August 25, Lloyd had 14 kills, two aces and four digs. Cameron was honored as the first Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week last week.

Julie Altieri: What’s Ricky Morton without Robert Gibson (look up 1980s pro wrestling tag teams, young readers)? Altieri, a junior, is closing in on 1,000 career assists after the Red Wolves hot start. Altieri has started her junior season with her typical steady setting for Cedar Ridge volleyball. She had four aces in wins over Northern Durham and Riverside. She already has 115 assists in the Red Wolves first five matches. Altieri had 31 assists against D.H. Conley and 29 against Carrboro.

(Again, the list of Cedar Ridge volleyball players to honor could stretch beyond 2,000 words. More will be featured in this space in the weeks ahead.)

Ella Caltabiano: A freshman who didn’t start getting serious about tennis until two years ago, Caltabiano wound up winning the deciding tilt in her very first varsity match. Facing Voyager Academy, Caltabiano won her singles match at #4 singles. With the match even 4-4, Caltabiano teamed with Reagan Simmons to win at #3 doubles 8-3 and earn the victory for the Red Wolves. Caltabiano was this week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week.

Ella Van Tiem: Due to COVID-19, the Orange volleyball team has only had one match thus far. The Lady Panthers defeated Jordan 3-2 on August 20 in Durham. Van Tiem had a team-high 15 kills with 15 digs. It was a strong debut for a team that was sidelined shortly afterwards. Orange will return to action tonight at Southern Alamance.

Tea Jones: The Orange women’s tennis team has had to deal with the heat and long matches through the first two weeks. Jones, a senior, is 5-0 in singles action thus far. That includes two wins over Carrboro. On Monday night, Jones built a mystery over Sarah McLaughlin 4-6, 6-2, 10-6 as the Lady Panthers defeated the Warriors in its first-ever match in the Central Carolina Conference.

Carter Thompson: The Orange midfielder had a hat trick and an assist as the Panthers men’s soccer team defeated Henderson Collegiate 9-0 for its first win of the season at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary on Saturday. Honorable mention to Tyler Mann, who also notched a hat trick for the Panthers.

Nathan Sorrells: The Orange football team came up short against Chapel Hill last Friday, but sophomore running back Nathan Sorrells had a breakthrough performance. He compiled 57 rushing yards, and had a 35-yard catch-and-run touchdown pass from quarterback Wynston Brown in the fourth quarter. Sorrells finished with 113 yards from scrimmage against the Tigers.