Our Orange Panther of the Week is Caroline Branan, who is the #1 singles player for the Orange girls tennis team. Branan has been a part of five victories over the past two weeks as Orange has won four of its last five dual matches. In her spare time, Caroline is a violinist for plays everything from Beethoven to Sting to The Who.

The Orange JV put its long winning streak in the line Thursday night and came away with a 37-14 victory over East Chapel Hill. Quarterback/Cornerback Wyatt Jones threw two touchdown passes, ran for another and made two interceptions. Joe Kiger had a strong defensive game while Machai Holt scored a touchdown as the Panthers remain undefeated with Southern Durham coming to town next Thursday.

The Orange Girls Tennis team has now won four of its last five dual matches following Thursday’s 9-0 victory over Hillside. Chandler Woods and Leah Gates each earned singles victories. The seniors discussed their improvement over the past few years. Gates, who has a 4.6 GPA, is hoping to attend UNC-Chapel Hill, where her older brother Adam is a senior and is going to the UNC-Duke game this Saturday at Kenan Stadium.

Orange beating Chapel Hill in soccer is one thing, a rare treat for Panther fans as rare as a North Carolina blizzard.

But R.J. Pherribo took drama to a new level on Wednesday night, scoring the game’s only goal with three seconds remaining as the Panthers stunned the Tigers 1-0 in Hillsborough.

It’s just the second time in the last seven years that Orange has defeated the Tigers in boys soccer. The other time was on October 19, 2005, when the Panthers earned a 2-1 win.

Orange goalkeeper Noah Miller earned his second consecutive clean sheet for the Panthers. He also shut out Northwood 2-0 on Monday.

The victory continued a string of close games for the Panthers against teams from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School System. Orange played Carrboro to a 2-2 tie in August, a game that featured the Jaguars earning the equalizer within the final five minutes. East Chapel Hill defeated Orange 2-1 in a defensive battle at Wildcats Stadium.

Orange is now 7-3-2 overall, 4-1 in the Big 8. The Panthers are tied with Chapel Hill and Northerrn Durham for second place.

East Chapel Hill maintains the top spot in the Big 8 after a 7-0 victory over Cedar Ridge in Hillsborough on Wednesday night. The Wildcats are 4-0 in the Big 8.

Next week, Orange hosts Southern Durham on Monday. Cedar Ridge returns to action at Hillside on Monday night.

With each passing win, the Cedar Ridge girls tennis squad inches closer to a spot in the 3-A dual playoffs.

The Red Wolves improved to 7-3 on the season with a 6-3 victory over Northwood in Pittsboro on Wednesday. Cedar Ridge earned victories in the top three singles matches, with freshman Ivy Garner efeating Sam Sparrow 6-2, 6-2. Olivia Ward claimed defeated Clarice Atkins 7-5, 6-4 at #2 singles. Kate Milner earned a 6-3, 6-4 win at #3 singles.

Madeline Werner claimed Cedar Ridge’s fourth singles win at #6, defeating Suzanne Earnshaw 6-4, 6-4.

Garner and Ward ensured Cedar Ridge would win the dual match when they won the #1 doubles match 8-5. Milner and Briana Cellini teamed for a win at #2 doubles by a score of 8-5.

There’s no rest for the Red Wolves. They travel to Chapel Hill this afternoon for their 2nd meeting against the Tigers this season. The first showdown two weeks ago was contentious, featuring words uttered by a Chapel Hill player during a heated match that created controversy and a discussion between the two coaching staffs as the day drew to a close.

Also on Wednesday, East Chapel Hill maintained its undefeated conference record with a 9-0 victory over Orange at Lindsay Linker Tennis Courts. The Wildcats, in its first season in the Big 8 Conference, are in first place in the conference with a 6-0 record.  East, coached by former Orange and Stanford tennis coach Nick Walker, dropped only six games in the nine matches to end Orange’s three-match winning streak.

The Orange doubles team of Chandler Woods and Leah Gates came to closest to winning for the Panthers, dropping the match to East’s Ellie Cubrilovic & Caroline Cai 8-3.

The Orange girls’ tennis team has won three consecutive matches.

After dropping the first three singles matches against Northern Durham on Monday, the Panthers swept the final six to defeat the Knights 6-3 at Orange Panthers Tennis Courts.

Chandler Woods earned the Panthers’ first win at #4 singles with a 6-3, 5-7, 10-4 win. Leah Gates followed with a 6-4, 6-3 victory. Sara Beth Campbell earned the first of her two wins with a 6-4, 6-1 win at #6 singles.

Orange won the three doubles matches with ease. Caroline Branan and Emma Williamson earned an 8-2 win at #1. Payton Clayton and Campbell teamed together to earn an 8-2 victory, which ensured the overall win. Gates and Woods teamed to win the final doubles match 8-3.

Orange travels to powerful East Chapel Hill at Lindsay Linker Tennis Courts on Wednesday.

Jamar Davis scored the final goal in Orange’s 4-1 victory over Cedar Ridge last week. On Monday night, he picked up where he left off.

After a sluggish first half, Davis scored two goals in the second half as Orange defeated Northwood 2-0 in Pittsboro. Davis’ first goal came on an assist from Luke Wirzba. The second goal came off a feed from Rohan Kasthuri.

Davis now leads Orange with ten goals. Goalkeeper Noah Miller earned the clean sheet. The Panthers took another step towards securing its first winning season in at least seven years, improving to 6-3-2, 3-1 in the Big 8. Orange is tied with Northern Durham for third place in the league.

Orange faces a huge match at Chapel Hill tonight.

Meanwhile, at James Armstrong Soccer Stadium in Durham on Monday night, Northern Durham shut out Cedar Ridge 3-0. Victor Lopez, Seth Wilson and Maykel Lopez scored goals for the Knights. Northern piled up 15 shots on net against the Red Wolves.

Cedar Ridge, who fell to 2-8, hosts East Chapel Hill tonight.

The Orange Panthers nearly broke the stranglehold that teams from southern Orange County have had at the top of the Big 8 standings on Tuesday night, but not quite.

East Chapel Hill held off Orange 3-2 at Wildcat Gymnasium on scores of 25-8, 17-25, 25-14, 19-25 and 16-14.

Senior Bailey Lucas had a strong all-around performance for the Panthers, finishing with twelve kills, 16 assists and eleven digs. Sophomore Emma Clements had four aces, 14 kills and 21 digs. Emma Clements had two aces, two kills, one block, 26 assists and eleven digs.  Libero Faith Foushee also had 21 digs.

With the win, Chapel Hill and East Chapel Hill maintain the top two spots in the Big 8. The Tigers are 7-0 in conference play while the Wildcats are now 7-1, 11-6 overall.

Orange falls to 8-6, and is now in fifth place in the Big 8 with a 3-5 record.

After winning the 3-A state championship in June, former Orange softball shortstop Abby Hamlett started to cry after her final game at N.C. State Dail Softball Complex because it would be the last time she would play with her teammates.

But it won’t be the last time she plays softball.

Over the weekend, Hamlett made the East Carolina softball squad during a walk-on tryout. She was the only walk-on to make the team under Coach Courtney Oliver. East Carolina will start its fall schedule on September 29th against Campbell at ECU Softball Stadium. Fittingly, ECU will also play at N.C. State on October 6th, where Hamlett played her final high school game. It’s possible that Hamlett will receive a scholarship in the future.

Ashley Muench: UNC-Greensboro senior volleyball outside hitter Ashley Muench was named to the All-Tournament team over the weekend during the Tussle in the Triad at Fleming Gymnasium. Muench, a native of Hurdle Mills, had 38 kills in three matches as the Spartans defeated High Point on Friday, but lost to Navy and Elon on Saturday. In the victory over the Panthers, Muench had 20 kills, seven digs and a block. UNCG Coach Cory Carlin was pleased with Muench’s effort. “Her performance was huge.” Carlin continued, “She came up big for us in so many spots. Its good to have the senior leadership we do on this team and her performance tonight was a big factor in this win.” UNCG is now 7-5 on the season.

Tiffany Brooks:  Tiffany Brooks, a native of Efland, had 18 digs on Sunday as Shaw swept Chowan 3-0 to wrap up an undefeated weekend at the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Round-Up at the C.E. Gaines Center in Winston-Salem. On Saturday, Shaw swept Virginia Union and Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, each by 3-0 scores. In the win over Union, Brooks had five digs, two assists and an ace. She had six digs against Lincoln as Shaw improved to 10-2 on the season, 3-0 in the CIAA.

Jordan Lloyd: The Brevard College Tornadoes defeated Emory & Henry 3-1 on Saturday in the second match of a doubleheader. White Cross-native Jordan Lloyd played in all four sets, finishing with two kills and a dig. Brevard also lost to Washington & Lee 3-0. Lloyd had three digs against the Wasps. Brevard is 4-2.

Andie McKinnon: Emory volleyball has now won seven straight matches after defeating sixth-ranked Juniata 3-0 in the East/West Challenge at the Woodruff PE Center in Atlanta on Saturday. Andie McKinnon, a sophomore, finished with twelve digs as the Eagles improved to 8-1.

Rachel Shinnick: Rachel Shinnick saw action in the Wofford women’s soccer team’s victories over Alabama A&M on Sunday (4-0) and Charleston Southern (1-0) on Friday. Shinnick has played in eight matches this season.

Cedar Ridge sophomore Ellie Nissler was the top runner for the Red Wolves during Saturday’s adidas Cross Country Challenge at WakeMed Soccer Complex in  Cary.

On a humid day, Nissler finished with a time of 22:20.00, 79th overall. She was one of nine Red Wolves to finish with personal best times. Sophomore Allison Musty came in with a time of 22:23.60, finishing 84th. Freshman Anne Morrell came in third for the team at 22:28.20, 89th overall. Abby Averette (24:14.) and Jill Myler (24:26.80) also finished in the top 200 in a race that featured over 300 runners from across the state.

The Cedar Ridge girls squad came in 21st as a team with 582 points among 39 teams.

For the Cedar Ridge boys’ team, junior Rory Legg-Bell led the Red Wolves with a time of 18:22.10, finishing 98th overall. Senior Brian Finch finished 111th with a time of 18:35.20. Junior Grant Stewart came in 184th at 19:12.60 Evan Paisley and Joshua Goularte finished in the top 300.

The Cedar Ridge Boys squad finished 25th among 43 teams.