Month: August 2022

Even after winning a match in the state dual team playoffs in 2021, there were still plenty of questions for the Orange women’s tennis team as its started its season against Voyager Academy on Tuesday. The Lady Panthers lost its top five singles players from last season. They did return plenty of experience, nonetheless, and it showed as the Panthers defeated the Vikings 6-3 at Orange High Tennis Courts on Tuesday. Orange won five of the six singles matches, including junior Erin Sollars winning a three-set battle against Voyager’s Katelyn Hutson 3-6, 6-4, 10-3. The only player for either team on the day to win both matches was Orange senior Madelyn Horn. In doubles action, Horn teamed with Isabel Jones to win against Grace Garrett and CeCe Meath. Horn also won her match at #6 singles. Makayla Davis, Shannon Solars and Sydney Rogers also captured Orange’s singles wins. The Lady Panthers will return home to face Southern Alamance on Thursday afternoon to wrap up the opening week of the season. 

Justin Webb has an old saying about the start of each tennis season.

“The boys freeze and the girls melt.”

When Webb’s Orange women’s tennis team started workouts on August 1, there were eight players practicing in heat indexes in triple digits, even at 6PM. From May-to-July, according to temperatures from Raleigh-Durham International Airport, there were 42 days where the high exceeded 90 degrees. Last year, it was 23.

That’s why it was a present surprise when Orange opened its season against Voyager Academy at home on Monday, the highs more adept to a early October match than a season-opener. The highs were barely in the 80s at match time. In fact, Webb had to open with doubles matches (which usually conclude dual meets) on the other side of the tennis stadium so that the other end could dry up from torrential rain that had fallen in previous days.

Though Webb lost his top five starters from last season, including senior Jera Hargrove (who is headed to Alabama for tennis at Tuskegee University), he did return plenty of veterans who are no strangers to competition. Seniors Sydney Rogers, Katelyn Van Mater and Isabel Jones are all multi-sport athletes who just led the Orange women’s soccer team to its deepest postseason run ever last spring.

After dropping two of the three doubles fixtures, Orange relied on its experience to win five of the six singles matches to defeat Voyager 6-3. Setting the tone was junior Erin Sollars, who won at #1 singles over Voyager’s Katelyn Hutson 3-6, 6-4, 10-3 (10 point tiebreaker for the third set). Erin’s younger sister, Shannon, defeated Cara Frieburger 7-6 (9-7), 6-3.

Senior Madelyn Horn was the only player to win both of her matches on the day. Horn won at #6 singles against Lauren King 6-3, 6-1. She teamed with Jones to take home Orange’s doubles win over Grace Garrett and CeCe Meath 8-6.

Junior Makayla Davis sewed up the dual match win with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Karli McKenna. Rogers knocked off Garrett 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.

For one of the first times in team history, Orange had to deal with some preseason expectations. In 2021, Orange defeated Wilson Fike in the 3A State Dual Team Playoffs, believed it be the only time in school history that the Lady Panthers won a postseason match.

“Any time you have a good group of girls coming back, that’s always a good thing,” Webb said. “They know the basis, they know the fundamentals. For a lot of players, it’s just a factor of getting back into match play.”

Orange will host Southern Alamance on Thursday.

Cedar Ridge 9, Southern Alamance 0

Sophomore Ella Caltabiano, junior Raven Mowles-Aring and junior Annabeth Lundberg each had two victories as Cedar Ridge opened its season with a win over Southern Alamance in Graham on Tuesday afternoon.

Caltabiano, who played regularly as a freshman, defeated Lexie Hester 6-0, 6-0 at #3 singles. In doubles action, Caltabiano teamed with Ria Ballenger to defeat Faith Moore and Paicey Cameron 8-1.

Mowles-Aring won at #6 singles over Mallory White 6-0, 6-0. At #2 doubles, the tandem of Mowles-Aring and Lundberg defeated Lexie Hester and Maddie Corbett 8-1.

In addition to her doubles win with Mowles-Aring, Lundberg defeated Morgan Isley at #5 singles 6-1, 6-0.

Cedar Ridge’s top singles player, junior Cameron Mayhew, started the sweep with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Moore. At #2 singles, Adeline Cummings won 6-1, 6-0. Catherine Ballenger won at #4 singles 6-0, 6-0.

At #3 doubles, Addie Paine and Molly Alverson defeated Isley and Mallory White 8-3.

CARRBORO 9, CEDAR RIDGE 0

Carrboro, the defending Northern Lakes Conference champion, defeated Cedar Ridge 9-0 on Wednesday in the Red Wolves home opener. Mowles-Aring won six games in her #5 singles match against Kaitlyn Lubell.

Cedar Ridge will host Durham School of the Arts on Thursday in Hillsborough.

Trenton Gill: Among various media outlets connected with the Chicago Bears, the prevalent thought is that Gill will be the team’s new punter when the regular season starts on September 11 against the San Francisco 49ers. On Saturday, Gill suited up for the Bears for the first time against the Kansas City Chiefs in its preseason opener. Playing on a surface at Solider Field that garnered criticism from the National Football League Players Association, Gill averaged 42.6 yards on seven punts. USA Today reporter Alyssa Barbieri said that Gill “played like a seasoned veteran.” Gill had a coffin corner punt that pinned the Chiefs inside at their own 3-yard line. In addition, Gill had three punts downed inside the 20-yard line. It could have easily been four, but the Bears didn’t down the ball before it tumbled into the end zone. Gill is also serving as the team’s holder on field goals and extra points for placekicker Cairo Santos. The Bears will play its second preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday night at Lumen Field.

Bryse Wilson: On Friday night, Wilson started for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park. Wilson, opposed by the Giants’ Carlos Rodon, suffered the loss as the Giants won 5-3. In five-and-one-thirds innings, Wilson gave up four runs off six hits. He struck out one and walked one. It was Wilson’s 13th start of the season. He is now 2-7 with a 5.93 ERA. Leading up to the start against the Giants, Wilson had thrown 32.1 innings and compiled a 3.34 ERA.

Mia Davidson: In week three of Athletes Unlimited softball, Davidson played for Team McCleney during a three-game series at Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, IL. In the opening game on Friday, Team Jaquish defeated Team McCleney 7-2. Davidson had three walks in the game. Under the Athletes Unlimited format, players are awarded eight points for a walk and ten points for every inning their team won. Davidson earned 34 points on the night. On Saturday, Team McCleney defeated Team Chidester 10-1. Davidson went 1-4 with an RBI single to right field in the second inning. Davidson came away with 120 points (10 for the single, 50 as a member of the winning team, 60 points for winning six innings). On Sunday, Davidson had a pop-up double down the right field line as Team McCleney came from behind to defeat Team Mulipola 9-6. Davidson finished 1-for-3 with a double. She scored two runs and finished the night with 110 points (20 for the double, 50 for the win and 40 inning point). Currently, Davidson is 18th in the individual standings with 782 points. On Monday night, Davidson was drafted to Team McCleney once again. She will play on Friday night against Team Jaquish at 6:30.

Kayla Hodges: Hodges, who transferred to Virginia Commonwealth after playing four years for the Elon women’s soccer team, played during the Rams’ 2-0 exhibition win over Old Dominion last week. Virginia Commonwealth will start its regular season at James Madison on Thursday night. This will be James Madison’s first game in any sport as a member of the Sun Belt Conference after jumping from the Colonial Athletic Association during the summer.

As Cameron Lloyd toured the scenic countryside of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania en route to Bucknell University last month, one thought echoed through her mind.

“This reminds me of Hillsborough.”

Funny enough, Fiona Cunningham thought the same thing the day before as she made the trek down from Syracuse, NY with her husband Dominic and their infant son, Tony. Cunningham, the volleyball coach at Cedar Ridge, assisted Lloyd during the arduous process of choosing her college destination.

Last month, Lloyd officially committed to Bucknell, becoming the third current Cedar Ridge player to declare for a Division I school. Last year, senior libero Grace Young announced her intentions to play at UNC Asheville. Cedar Ridge outside hitter Cameron Lanier, who reached the 500 kills plateau during Cedar Ridge’s 3A State Championship match against North Iredell, announced she would attend Elon last spring.

Lloyd visited several Ivy League schools, namely Penn and Cornell, and learned that the city life wasn’t for her. There was even mutual interest with Duke University, a decision that would have rendered irony somewhere in a White Cross cemetery considering Lloyd’s parents, Joel and Sherry, are devoted UNC fans.

“After I visited the city, I thought that wasn’t where I wanted to go,” Lloyd said. “I wanted someplace that wanted me as a player and a person. I feel like I talked to a bunch of schools that I was on their list to talk with, but didn’t have very much interest in me. So I wanted a school that really wanted me.”

Lloyd’s commitment to Bucknell ended an intense and, at times, stressful process that ebbed and flowed between the nomadic world of college coaching, long-standing relationships and modern communication.

“If someone asked me one week what my list of schools was, the next week it would look completely different,” Lloyd said. “It was constantly changing.”

Cunningham started assisting Lloyd in her recruitment in February.

“Fiona helped so much,” Lloyd said. “She basically became my recruiting director. She talked to coaches on my behalf and basically did everything and helped me out. She would tell me things she knew about schools. She has connections to various schools.”

“For all of my athletes, I want them to know I’m here to support them,” Cunningham said. “Whether it’s athletics or academics for them next in life, I try to make sure that high school coaches should be a resource for them for what they want to do after high school. Cameron reached out to me last February to find a good fit academically and athletically.”

Then-Bucknell assistant Erin Kretzschmar contacted Lloyd in April. After several emails of mutual interest, Lloyd started waiting for an invitation for an official visit to the Pennsylvania campus. Except her emails to Kretzchmar, which were once answered promptly, started getting no replies at all. Lloyd, Cunningham and her family figured that Bucknell had lost interest.

What they didn’t learn until later was that Kretzschmar had taken a job as an assistant at The Citadel in late May.

Lloyd arrived in Indianapolis for the USAV Nationals for her travel club team with a nagging feeling of uncertainty. Before long, Bison head coach Tyler Hagstrom reached out to Cunningham. On July 3, Hagstrom spoke to Lloyd after her last month, then called the next day as the family left Nationals.

“Are you still interested in Bucknell?” Hagstrom asked Lloyd.

“Yeah,” she replied.

“Well, let’s get you up to up to school next week,” Hagstrom said.

From that point forward, Hagstrom and the entire Bison staff put on a full-court press to attract Lloyd to Lewisburg.

“We had only talked for about 20 days,” Lloyd said. “He really just jumped on the process of getting me. The entire team made me feel so welcome. They had me play with the team. It moved very fast.”

It turned out that Lloyd had a connection to Bucknell in Jeremy Young, who joined the Bison staff as an assistant coach in 2021. Lloyd met Young when she was 13 while he helped run the UNC volleyball summer camp. Young previously served as a volunteer assistant coach with the Tar Heels until 2018. He also spent seven years coaching for Triangle Volleyball Club in Morrisville while also serving as a counselor at Phillips Middle School in Chapel Hill.

“I really didn’t know him personally, but he knows me,” Lloyd said. “We had that connection of both living in North Carolina.”

“I think academically, Bucknell is a good fit for Cameron,” Cunningham said. “In terms of volleyball, it was a good fit. So I reached out to coached at Bucknell to see what their interest was and they really liked her. The coaches at Bucknell did a good job communicating what they were looking for and what their program was like.”

Lloyd is the all-time kills leader in Cedar Ridge history with 817. She became the first player in school history to reach 500 career kills on August 31, 2021 against Person, where she amassed 18. Lloyd broke her own school record with 360 kills in a single-season in 2021. As a freshman in 2018, she broke the school record with 346.

Last year, the Cedar Ridge volleyball team became the first female sports team in school history to win a state championship. In a stacked Central Carolina Conference, the Red Wolves emerged undefeated in league play. The depth of the conference was evident in the 3A state playoffs when the league placed three of the final four teams in the Eastern Regional semifinals (along with Person and Northwood). Cedar Ridge defeated J.H. Rose for the regional championship before its win over North Iredell in the state championship match at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh.

Lloyd’s college commitment to Bucknell is now secure, which means she’s cleared another obstacle. She didn’t choose Duke, so her family’s passionate ties to UNC football and basketball remain strong. While Lloyd’s free time will dwindle further between now and Cedar Ridge’s season-opener against J.H. Rose next Wednesday in Greenville, her senior season may closely resemble “The Last Dance,” the epic, if divisive, 10-part documentary of Michael Jordan’s final year with the Chicago Bulls in 1997-1998 that’s racked up millions of views on Netflix.

Lloyd started as a freshmen at Cedar Ridge with her childhood friends from White Cross: Julie Altieri, Anaya Carter and Grace Young. Lloyd started playing travel volleyball under Coach Nancy Cates with childhood friends Caitlin Carden and Erin Jordan-Cornell from Orange High School.

The 97-98 Bulls knew that season would be their final one together due to a variety of factors. They were able to block out the distractions and win one, final world championship together before they went their separate ways, never as strong again separately as they were together.

Now, Lloyd can simply focus on volleyball.

This week, Cedar Ridge started its journey for a second straight 3A State Championship with solid scrimmage outings against Apex Friendship and Chapel Hill at Chapel Hill High School.

With her college decision now confirmed, Lloyd is ready for her Last Dance at Cedar Ridge.

“I feel like this year, I’m going to be more relaxed and have some fun,” Lloyd said. “I don’t have to be perfect 24/7 anymore. I can just relax and just play my game, have fun and hopefully get another ring.”

Josh Mayhew is such a constant, daily presence at tennis courts across Hillsborough, he’s on a first name basis with opposing players from rival Orange High School.

Even though he attends Cedar Ridge, a standard workday for Mayhew starts at 6:45 each morning when he drives to Orange High’s tennis courts to hit balls with friends or by himself. After classes, he’ll have a hitting session, followed by cardio training. On match days, if Cedar Ridge’s finishes its business quickly and successfully enough, Mayhew will hang around and hit balls off the fence to himself long after the sun goes down, even if the only people remaining have their backs turned to him as they watch a nearby softball game.

All that effort has led Mayhew to achieve unprecedented accomplishments at Cedar Ridge. This summer, he added one more.

In June, Mayhew was honored as the Best Men’s Tennis Player in the state of North Carolina during the HighSchoolOT Honors. Mayhew was awarded during a ceremony at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in Raleigh on June 18.

Mayhew, who will start his senior season later this month, was also named the Central Carolina Conference Player of the Year. It comes after he led Cedar Ridge to its first conference championship in men’s tennis as a 3A school. The Red Wolves also reached the 3A State Dual Team Playoffs under head coach Steve Mayhew, a former player at Orange.

Individually, Mayhew reached the 3A State Men’s Tennis Final in May. A week earlier, Mayhew played for the Mideast Regional Final at the Burlington Tennis Center. He became the first Cedar Ridge men’s tennis player to reach the state and regional finals twice.

Last spring, Mayhew went 13-2 in singles play. His only two losses came against Terry Sanford freshman Drew Hedgecoe, who claimed the state championship.

In both of his varsity seasons, Mayhew’s only losses for each respective season have come against the eventual state singles champions. In 2021, Chapel Hill’s Dennis Perumov won the state and regional championships.

Last spring, Mayhew opened the 3A State Tennis Tournament with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over J.J. Woerner of First Flight at the Piedmont Indoor Tennis Center in Greensboro. In the quarterfinals, Mayhew defeated Shiv Patel of South Point 6-0, 6-2. Mayhew reached his second straight state final with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Ajay Swisher of St. Stephens.

Mayhew has led Cedar Ridge to its most successful years since moving to 3A in 2013. Between 2016-2020, the Red Wolves had just one winning season. In his first full varsity season in 2021, Mayhew helped Cedar Ridge to a 9-4 season.

In the 2021 state tournament, Mayhew defeated Nicholas Clementi of Charlotte Catholic 6-3, 6-1 in the opening round at the Burlington Tennis Center. In the quarterfinals, Mayhew fought through some cramps in the second set to defeat Ben Jones of Clayton 7-5, 7-5. In the semifinals, Mayhew upended Soham Pradhan of Marvin Ridge 6-2, 6-4. He became just the second singles player in Hillsborough tennis history to reach a state final.

Orange’s Britton Webb reached the 2A State Final in 2005, where he lost to Cardinal Gibbons’ Will Rollinson, who eventually won three state championships.

Immediately after facing Hedgecoe for the state championship, Mayhew was right back at work in various individual tournaments across the region. There was one in Rome, Georgia, and another in Cary.

Mayhew’s younger sister, Cameron, will start her junior season for the Cedar Ridge women’s team when they travel to face Southern Alamance in its season opener next Tuesday. Cameron Mayhew qualified for the Mideast Regionals singles tournament in June 2021, her freshman year.

The Cedar Ridge women’s tennis team will have its home opener against Voyager Academy on August 30.

Bryse Wilson: After nearly earning his second win of the season last week for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Wilson had another strong outing in his first-ever visit to Camden Yards in Baltimore on Sunday. Wilson struck out five over five innings as the Pirates defeated Baltimore 8-1. Wilson surrendered just one run off four hits. The run was supplied by Jorge Mateo, who hit a solo homer in the third inning. After the victory, Wilson is now 2-6 with a 5.86 ERA. Last Tuesday, Wilson threw five-and-one-thirds innings in a 5-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers at PNC Park. Wilson surrendered three runs off six hits. He struck out two. After leaving the game with one out in the sixth inning, the Pirates trailed 3-0. But Pittsburgh scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth and never trailed again. Pittsburgh has won four of its last six games. Wilson will start on Friday against San Francisco at Oracle Park.

Mia Davidson: The all-time home run hitter in Southeastern Conference softball history delivered the first professional dingers of her career this weekend. Once again, Davidson was selected to play for Team Eberle in Athletes Unlimited for a three-game series at Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, IL. On Saturday, Davidson hit her first professional home run with a solo blast to left field for Team Eberle against Team Mulipola. Davidson finished 1-3 and with 50 points (40 for the home run, ten points for Team Eberly winning the 1st inning) as Team Mulipola won 8-2. On Friday, Team Eberle defeated Team Harshman 5-1. Davidson earned 120 points (50 points for the win and 70 points for winning all seven innings), though she finished 0-for-2. On Sunday, Davidson hit a two-run homer in the 2nd inning. She finished 1-for-3 with two RBIs and came away with 70 points (40 for the home run, 30 for Team Eberle winning two innings). Through two weeks of action, Davidson is hitting .214 with two home runs and three RBIs. She is currently 20th among Athletes Unlimited players with 530 points. Despite the two home runs, Davidson fell eight spots in the individual standings this week because Team Eberle went 1-2 for the weekend. Davidson will be drafted on a new team on Monday afternoon for next weekend’s three-game series starting Friday night.

Kayla Hodges: After four years at Elon, Kayla Hodges made her unofficial debut for the Virginia Commonwealth women’s soccer team just a few miles from where she played her high school soccer. Hodges suited up against UNC at Anson Dorrance Field in Chapel Hill. Hodges played 85 minutes on the defensive backline. The Tar Heels won 5-0. The Rams will play another exhibition game against Old Dominion in Norfolk, VA on Friday, then start its regular season at James Madison in Harrisonburg, VA on August 18.

Payton Wilson: After missing ten games last season after suffering a dislocated shoulder against Mississippi State, Wilson returned to the practice field for N.C. State last week. Wilson, who is a redshirt junior, went into detail about his problems after he suffered the injury to the Raleigh News and Observer’s Kyle Williams. Wilson told CBS Sports that “This is the best his body has ever felt.” During ACC Kickoff in Charlotte last month, Wilson was chosen to the All-ACC Preseason Defensive team as a linebacker.

Trenton Gill: Last week, former Cedar Ridge punter Trenton Gill started training camp for the Chicago Bears in Bourbonnais, IL. Several Bears-related media outlets have already pegged Gill as a lock to make the 53-man final roster. Chicago will play its first exhibition game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Solider Field on Saturday afternoon.