Orange High School

For the first time since 2005, the Orange volleyball team has advanced to the 3A State Quarterfinals. On Thursday night, the Lady Panthers impressively defeated Union Pines 3-0 in Hillsborough on scores of 25-9, 25-14, 25-16. Senior Ella Wimsatt finished with 16 kills and 12 digs, her 18th double-double of the season. Liberal Sadye Porter had 12 digs, two assists and one ace. Orange has won 25 matches, the most in 18 years. It wasn’t just Orange’s third straight playoff win, but the Lady Panthers were dominant. They only trailed once the entire match, which came after the first point of the match. Orange has swept all three of its state playoff opponents, Swansboro, Northern Nash and Union Pines. It’s particularly gratifying for Wimsatt, who has been a varsity performer the past four years. Before Tuesday, Wimsatt hadn’t advanced past the second round of the state playoffs. Now, Orange will host J.H. Rose on Saturday. The winner will advance to the 3A Eastern Regional championship game on October 31. Orange, the Central Carolina Conference regular season champions, will face the Rampants at 3PM on Saturday.

Orange volleyball’s Ella Wimsatt & Sadye Porter discuss playoff win over Union Pines

For the first time since 2005, the Orange volleyball team has advanced to the 3A State Quarterfinals. On Thursday night, the Lady Panthers impressively defeated Union Pines 3-0 in Hillsborough on scores of 25-9, 25-14, 25-16. Senior Ella Wimsatt finished with 16 kills and 12 digs, her 18th double-double of the season.

For the first time since 2015, the Orange volleyball team has reached the third round of the 3A State Playoffs. On Tuesday night, the Lady Panthers defeated Northern Nash 3-0 on scores of 25-14, 25-10, 25-10. Orange’s young but imposing front line provided a size advantage, once again, that overwhelmed the opposition. Sophomore middle blocker Ava Wilkerson finished with eleven kills. Freshman Sawyer White rotated between setter and right outside hitter. She registered five kills, two aces, seven digs, 16 assists and one block. Wilkerson, with her 6-foot-3 frame, leads Orange with 57 blocks. She also has 234 kills, which is second on the team. White has worked her way into the regular rotation for 1st-year head coach Hope Heverly. It was a long wait for Orange to finally reach the 3rd round of the state playoffs for Orange. The Lady Panthers had been eliminated in the second round each of the past two years. Now, Orange has not only reached the third round, but they will host Union Pines on Thursday night in Hillsborough. Orange hasn’t reached the state quarterfinals since 2007, when they were a 2A team. They will get their opportunity when they host Union Pines on Thursday night at 6PM in Hillsborough. The 2007 Orange squad finished with 25 wins. The current Lady Panthers are 24-4.

Orange volleyball’s Ava Wilkerson & Sawyer White discuss playoff win over Northern Nash

For the first time since 2015, the Orange volleyball team has reached the third round of the 3A State Playoffs. On Tuesday night, the Lady Panthers defeated Northern Nash 3-0 on scores of 25-14, 25-10, 25-10. Orange’s young but imposing front line provided a size advantage, once again, that overwhelmed the opposition.

Men’s Soccer: Orange 2, Eastern Alamance 0: It’s all but certain that the Orange men’s soccer team will do something unprecedented in the 35-year history of the program later this week.

They will make the state playoffs in back-to-back years.

On Monday night, the Panthers got two goals from Traver Bruhns to defeat Eastern Alamance 2-0 at the John Kirby Sports Complex in Mebane. With the win, the Panthers ensured a winning regular season at 8-7-3. They end the Central Carolina Conference slate at 6-4-2, good enough for fourth place.

In his final regular season game, Bruhns, a senior, had his first career brace. Angel Chavez and Daniel Romero assisted on the goals.

Orange goalkeeper Finn Kelly made six saves to earn his fourth clean sheet of the season.

As of Wednesday night, Orange was ranked #26 in the 3A East RPI rankings, which would comfortably put them in the field of 64. The state tournament begins on Monday.

Women’s Tennis: Rocky Mount 5, Cedar Ridge 1: In the second round of the 3A State Dual Team Playoffs, Rocky Mount ended Cedar Ridge’s season on Monday afternoon.

The Gryphons, the champions of The Big East, improved to 15-0. In her final match, Cedar Ridge’s Annabeth Lundberg defeated Jillian Schrimper 7-5, 6-3, the only win of the day for the Red Wolves.

Cedar Ridge ends the season 14-6. It was the final match for head coach Steve Mayhew, who is stepping down after four years. Under his direction, the Red Wolves won the first men’s tennis conference championship in school history in 2022. Mayhew, a former player at Orange, coached the women’s team to its first victory in the 3A State Team playoffs since 2016 last week when they defeated crosstown rival Orange.

Mayhew’s daughter, Cameron, also played in her final match for the Red Wolves. Cameron Mayhew ended her senior year with a singles record of 14-3. It was also the final matches for Lundberg, Catherine Ballenger, Dupree Sorenson, and Raven Mowles-Airing.

Cedar Ridge finished with the most overall wins since they won the Big 8 Conference championship in 2016. That team, with Lennie Corbett as head coach, reached the 3A State Quarterfinals with an overall record of 19-2.

For a lofty goal that has been denied to the Orange volleyball team the past eight years, reaching the third round of the 3A State Playoffs came easy enough.

The Lady Panthers endured some early hiccups to roll past Northern Nash 3-0 on Tuesday night in Hillsborough. The Lady Panthers (24-4) have now won more game than any Orange team in the 17 years. Records on MaxPreps that date back to 2007 show the winningest team in the last 16 years was the 2008 team, which finished 19-5.

It’s the first time that Orange has reached the 3rd round of the 3A State Playoffs since 2015.

Orange will face Union Pines in Hillsborough on Thursday night at 6PM. The Vikings defeated won a five-set thriller against Western Alamance in Cameron on Tuesday.

Senior Ella Wimsatt finished with 12 kills and seven digs. Sophomore middle blocker Ava Wilkerson finished with eleven kills. Sophomore Aubrey Jordan had seven kills.

While the best may still be ahead for the Orange volleyball team, getting past the second round is no small feat for a senior class that had spent the past two years bumping its head on a glass ceiling. Last year, Cedar Ridge defeated Orange in the second round. In 2021, Hunt edged the Lady Panthers in five sets.

“Starting this season, the seniors had set the goal of getting past the second round,” said Orange coach Hope Heverly. “Coach (Mary Alice) Pike and I quickly told them that wasn’t an OK goal, that we were going to make it more than just  past the second round. But I know that was something important to them was to make it past tonight.”

Northern Nash, coming off its first playoff win in nine years, ends the season 15-6. The Knights found themselves ahead 7-4 in the opening set after Orange had three early serves go long.

“I could tell the girls were just a little bit nervous,” Heverly said. “You could tell it was a mixture of adrenaline and nerves early. I knew they would settle down. Once we settled down, we really showed them who we were.”

Jordan started a 7-2 run with a kill set up by White. Wilkerson followed with an unassisted spike on a low-hanging ball off a serve from junior Abby Silinski. Wilkerson put Orange ahead for good, both for the opening set and the rest of the match, with another kill assisted by White. Orange ended the set on a 9-1 run, ending with a spike by Jordan.

Sophomore Katie Silcott and freshman Sawyer White alternated between setter and right outside hitter. Silcott, who surpassed 1,000 career assists in the regular season finale against Walter Williams, came away with 27 assists, five kills and three digs. White had five kills, 16 assists and seven digs.

“We’re making more of a dynamic front,” Heverly said. “Having Sawyer coming on now and stepping up to run a 6-2 has been really beneficial for us. Sawyer has been training with Katie a lot this season and you can see it’s really coming up big now in the postseason.”

Silinski caused the Knights fits in the second set. She had four aces during a 10-1 Orange run that culminated the second set. After a kill by White set up by Wimsatt, Orange completed the frame after a serve by the Knights went into the nylon, ending at 25-10.

Orange opened the third set with four straight points, including a kill by Wilkerson. The Knights came back to even things at 5-5 after a block by Brooke Rose, but the Lady Panthers came back with six in a row. White and Wimsatt each had blocks to put Orange ahead 11-5. Orange went on an 8-2 run to go ahead 22-9, ending with a kill from sophomore Mariah Poole. Wilkerson had a kill on match point.

The small earthquake felt around Hillsborough on Thursday wasn’t directly related to a local volleyball practice. It happened just before noon, hours before volleyball practice started at Orange or Cedar Ridge.

While Ava Wilkerson opening spike in the opening set against Swansboro didn’t put a hole in the brand new floor at Orange High, it could have easily led to more seismic activity.

An Orange team seeded #2 in the 3A East Region roared past Sawnsboro 3-0 on scores of 25-10, 25-1 and 25-13 in the opening round of the 3A State Playoffs on Saturday afternoon. The Lady Panthers, the regular season champions of the Central Carolina Conference, advanced to host Northern Nash on Tuesday night in Hillsborough.

There were plenty of near-statistical milestones for Orange against the Pirates (9-13), the #31 overall seed from the Coastal Conference. Sophomore setter Katie Silcott was on pace for a rare triple-double, but never saw the floor in the third set. In the opening two sets, Silcott had 14 assists, six digs and eight aces.

Swansboro simply had no answer for Wilkerson, the 6-foot-3 middle blocker, who wasn’t far from a triple-down of her own. Wilkerson came away with 12 kills, six blocks and two aces. Sophomore Aubrey Jordan had nine kills. On defense, senior libero Sadye Porter had 26 digs.

Swansboro did open with the first three points, but it was all Orange after that. With Porter serving, Orange ran off 16 straight points, kick started by three straight blocks from Wilkerson. Jordan had three kills and a block during the spree. Mariah Poole spiked home set point off an assist from Wilcott.

Freshman Sawyer White took over setter duties in the second set while Silcott moved to outside hitter. Orange scored the first eight points of the second set, which started with back-to-back blocks by Wilkerson. In the second, Wilkerson was responsible for six points. Silcott served eight aces in the second set alone, including set point at 25-1.

Wilkerson, Jordan and senior Ella Wimsatt each had four kills in the third set. White racked up 12 assists in Silcott’s absence. Wilkerson also had two aces. Josie Crawford had a point that led to match point, which Orange won after a Pirate committed a net violation.

Orange will look to clear an elusive hurdle on Tuesday night against Northern Nash, from The Big East Conference. The Lady Panthers have been eliminated in the second round of the 3A State Playoffs each of the last two years.

Cedar Ridge 3, Scotland County 0: Just days after winning the CCC Tournament championship over its archrival, Cedar Ridge played its fourth match in six days with a victory over Scotland County on Saturday.

It may have well been the final home game for nine Cedar Ridge seniors, many of whom won a state championship together two years ago. Over the past four years, Cedar Ridge has a 43-4 record inside of Cedar Ridge Gymnasium.

Cedar Ridge, the #11 seed in the East Region, prevailed on scores of 25-13, 25-13 and 25-11. Sophomore Claire Hargett finished with 19 kills and eight digs. Senior Graylinn Serge had six kills and 21 digs. Setter Rachel Alverson had 34 assists and three digs. Senior libero Natasha Buchler-Fosado had eight digs.

Scotland County, from the 4A/3A Sandhills Conference, ends the season 15-9 overall after finishing 3rd in its league.

The Red Wolves have won a state playoff game for the fourth straight year. On Tuesday night, Cedar Ridge will travel to face Franklinton, the champions of The Big East Conference. The Rams, with an overall record of 19-5, finished 13-0 in conference play this year, winning both The Big East regular season and conference tournament championships. The Rams swept Fayetteville 71st in the opening round on Saturday.

The winner of Cedar Ridge/Franklinton will face either J.H. Rose or Jacksonville in the third round on Thursday.

Walter Williams 1, Cedar Ridge 0: The hopes of Cedar Ridge to win its first conference championship in men’s soccer suffered a major blow on Wednesday night at Red Wolves Stadium. Anderson Aguilera fired in a shot from 17 yards off an assist from Bryan Isley with 6:47 remaining in regulation as Williams defeated the Red Wolves.

Cedar Ridge’s loss put Western Alamance in sole possession of first place in the Central Carolina Conference. On Wednesday, the Warriors rolled past Person 9-0.

The loss came two nights after Cedar Ridge played to a scoreless tie against Western Alamance in Elon. The Red Wolves simply needed to defeat Williams and Eastern Alamance in order to gain a share of the Central Carolina Conference championship.

Cedar Ridge can still claim a share of the championship with a win over Eastern Alamance on Tuesday night in Hillsborough, along with a loss by Western Alamance to Southern Alamance.

Cedar Ridge defeated Williams 2-1 in Burlington on September 25.

Orange 2, Eno River Academy 1: In the first-ever meeting between the two Hillsborough-based schools, the Panthers got the game-winning goal from Daniel Romero to defeat the Bobcats at soccer.com field in Efland. Traver Bruhns assisted on the game-winning goal as Orange won its third game in five days.

The Panthers defeated Walter Williams and Cedar Ridge leading up to the victory over the Bobcats.

Orange senior goalkeeper Finn Kelly, who plays at the North Carolina FC Academy, earned the victory in net, making seven saves.

Southern Alamance 3, Orange 0: On its senior night on Monday night, the Panthers fell behind early and suffered a loss to the Patriots. Evan Benthe scored the game-winning goal off an assist from Heinzen Amaya. Billy Clark and Nicola Sansovivi also had goals for the Patriots.

Orange, who defeated Southern Alamance 3-2 on September 20 in Graham, got seven saves from Kelly.

Orange 1, Eastern Alamance 1: Emmanuel Mil Cruz notched the equalizing goal for Orange in its final home game of the season on Thursday night. Mil Cruz’s goal was his fifth of the year.

Eastern Alamance opened the scoring in the first half. The Panthers are 7-7-3 overall, 5-4-2 in the CCC. The Panthers will wrap up the regular season with another game against Eastern Alamance on Monday night in Mebane.