Cedar Ridge High School

Photo courtesy of the News of Orange

The Cedar Ridge Women’s Golf team wrapped up its season on Monday when Julia Mills represented the team in the 3A Central Regional Golf Match. She posted an 18 hole score of 105 placing her just 8 strokes from moving on to the state match next week. Julia was our team medalist in every match and finished the conference season with a 51.8 nine hole average which put her in 14 place out of 32 golfers in the conference. The lone team highlight was in the 3rd match of the season when we scored a 177 to edge out Chapel Hill by 2 strokes to finish 5th. The conference was made up of Northwood, East Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and NCSSM. In that match Amy Stutzer shot a season best 59 to help the team to that high finish for the season. Hannah Gobert, Madison Vaughan, and Emma Roby also contributed throughout the year with improvements each week.

After the inclusion of East Chapel Hill to the Big 8 Conference, the goings figured to be tougher for Cedar Ridge and Orange in many sports, none more so than tennis.

Indeed, East Chapel Hill, coached by Caldwell-native Nick Walker, won the Big 8 Championship. Chapel Hill finished 2nd, which left Cedar Ridge hoping for a wildcard spot that didn’t come to fruition.

A 13-6 record with season sweeps against Eastern Alamance, Orange, Northern Durham and Southern Durham wasn’t enough for the Red Wolves to reach the field of 32 in the 3A state playoffs. After winning the 2016 Big 8 Championship for the first time in school history, the Red Wolves reached the state quarterfinals before falling to Terry Sanford.

Now, Cedar Ridge will prepare four players for the 3A Mideast Regionals on Saturday at the Burlington Tennis Center.

Sophomore Olivia Ward will compete in singles after advancing to the Big 8 semifnals last week at East Chapel Hill’s Lindsay Linker Tennis Complex. Ward both of her matches 10-1.

Freshman Ivy Garner will also compete in the regionals. Garner, who is a star soccer player, didn’t play in the regionals.

The doubles team of Kate Milner and Brianna Cellini also advanced to the regionals. Cellini and Milner captured its first two matches at last week’s conference tournament before the rest of the tournament was rained out.

The Big 8 Tennis Championships were set for East Chapel Hill’s Lindsay Linker Tennis Courts on Wednesday, but there were no champions to be had.

That’s because of torrential rain that fell just as the singles and doubles semifinals were set to start.

Cedar Ridge sophomore Olivia Ward captured her first two matches to advance to the semifinals, qualifying for the 3-A Mideast Regionals.  Ward captured her two matches 10-1 when the rain starte to fall.

Cedar Ridge’s top seed Ivy Garner did not have to play and will also advance to the regionals at the Burlington Tennis Center.

The Red Wolves will also send the doubles team of Bri Cellini and Kate Milner to the regionals. Cellini and Milner captured its first two matches before the skies opened.

The Regionals will be held October 20-21 at the Burlington Tennis Center.

Cedar Ridge is also awaiting to see if they will grab a wildcard spot in the 3A dual team tennis playoffs. The Red Wolves, who advanced to the state quarterfinals in 2016 after winning the Big 8 Championship, finished third in the Big 8 this season with a 13-6 overall record, 11-4 in the Big 8. Cedar Ridge came in 3rd behind conference champion East Chapel Hill and Chapel Hill.

Wednesday’s meet also officially ended Orange’s season. In doubles action, senior Caroline Branan and freshman Emma Williamson teamed in a hard fought match, falling to Chapel Hill 10-8. Orange’s Payton Clayton lost to Northwood’s #2 singles player 10-6.

After a victory over Northern Durham last week, Orange ends its season 6-15,

Certainly, the United States’ men soccer team catastrophic loss to Trinidad & Tobago to eliminate the Americans from the World Cup can’t compare to the Orange futbol squad losing a conference game. But it was pretty surprising.

Northwood, coming in with a 3-15 record, ended the Panthers’ 9-game winning streak 2-1 on Wednesday night at Panther Soccer Field.

Like Trinidad & Tobago on Tuesday night, the Chargers jumped out to a 2-0 halftime lead. Orange’s Jamar Davis, coming off a four-goal game against Cedar Ridge, tallied the Panthers’ only goal. But the Panthers could never find the equalizer.

With the loss, Chapel Hill now has sole possession of first place in the Big 8 at 10-1. Orange falls to 9-2 with a road trip to CHHS coming up Monday night.

The Panthers are 12-4-2.

Also on Wednesday night, Cedar Ridge tied Northern Durham 2-2 at Red Wolves Stadium. Jake Brown scored both of the Red Wolves goals. Brown also scored against Orange on Monday night.

Senior Cameron Koehler and Gavin Hughes assisted on Brown’s two goals. The Red Wolves had several opportunities to score in overtime, but couldn’t notch a game-winner.

Cedar Ridge is now 4-12-1, 3-7-1 in the Big 8. They travel to East Chapel Hill on Monday night.

With the 3A state playoffs approaching, wildcard playoff spots are up for grabs across the state. If Orange misses the playoffs, Tuesday night’s loss may be a big reason why.

Northern Durham rallied from a 2-1 deficit to defeat the Panthers 3-2 at Poe Gymtorium. The Knights completed a season sweep of the Panthers on scores of 25-18, 21-25, 22-25, 25-17 and 15-7.

Orange ends the regular season 13-9, 6-8 in the Big 8 Conference. The Panthers finish 5th in the Big 8. Chapel Hill captured the regular season championship while Northern Durham, East Chapel Hill and Northwood finished in a three-way tie for 2nd at 10-4.

Senior Bailey Lucas finished with three aces, ten kills, 16 assists and ten digs. Caroline Compton ended with one ace, one kill, 23 assists and five digs. Senior libero Faith Foushee had 27 digs and two assists. Kaitlyn Werden ended up with eight kills, one bock, one assist and two digs.

On Monday night, Cedar Ridge hosted its annual breast cancer awareness event. It featured a tripleheader with Stanford Middle School and Gravelly Elementary. The North Carolina School of Science and Math swept the Red Wolves 3-0.

Cedar Ridge will conclude its regular season tonight at Southern Durham.

After three years as a varsity soccer player, Orange’s Jamar Davis finally has his sweep against Cedar Ridge.

And he got a Texas Hat Trick while doing it.

Davis scored four goals and added an assist as Orange defeated Cedar Ridge 5-2 to capture the Hillsborough Derby at Panther Soccer Field on Monday night. In case the four goals wasn’t enough, Davis assisted on the other Orange goal that he didn’t score, which came from Luke Wirzba.

Levi Anderson and R.J. Pherribo had assists for the Panthers, who maintained a tie for first place in the Big 8 Conference. The Panthers are now tied with Chapel Hill for 1st place in the Big 8. They travel to Chapel Hill on Monday.

Orange is 12-3-2 after its ninth straight win. This is the first Orange team in at least ten years to win ten games in a season, and most likely that span is considerably longer.

The Panthers host Northwood tonight at Orange soccer field. The Panthers fought past the Chargers 2-0 last month in Pittsboro.

Cedar Ridge didn’t go down without a fight. Jake Brown and Eh Tha scored goals for the Red Wolves.

Cedar Ridge will host Northern Durham tonight at Red Wolves Stadium at 6:30.

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is sophomore cross country runner Ella Nissler. At Cedar Ridge’s home meet against Northern Durham, the Red Wolves girls team captured the meet behind Nissler’s 2nd place finish with a time of 23:49, only one second behind teammate Anne Morrell. Ella is also a gifted artist. In fact, this interview was conducted just before Ella had to return to art class.

In a rebuilding season, there have been signs of hope for the Cedar Ridge boys soccer team.

On Monday night, for instance, the Red Wolves defeated Northwood 2-1 to complete a season sweep of the Chargers. Freshman striker Dean Allen scored the opener in the first half. After Northwood tied the game before halftime, junior wingback Cameron Koehler scored the game-winner.

Chapel Hill defeated Cedar Ridge 9-0 on Wednesday night.

The Red Wolves face Orange in the Hillsborough Derby at Orange on Monday night at Panthers Soccer Field. Orange captured the first matchup at Red Wolves Stadium 4-1 last month.