After the Orange men’s tennis team made the 3A state playoffs for the first time since 2016, three members of the Panthers have been named to the All-Big 8 Conference team.
In addition, two players from Cedar Ridge were honored in the season-ending awards.
Orange’s Colin O’Hagerty, Joshua Van Mater and Ronan Towell were named to the All-Big 8 team. Cedar Ridge’s Cameron Koehler and Grayson Ramos were also named All-Big 8.
Koehler became the first athlete in Hillsborough this season to make All-Conference in two different sports while qualifying for regionals in a third sport. In the fall, Koehler was named All-Big 8 in men’s soccer. In the winter, he joined Devin Bunner, Gabriel Castaneda and John Garcia on a 200 meter relay team that qualified for the Central Regional Swimming Championships at the Greensboro Aquatic Center with a time of 1:37. 89. He played four different sports at Cedar Ridge. After graduating last month, Koehler plans to major in naval architecture.
O’Hagerty and Towell qualified for the 3A Mideast Regionals after beating a team from Northwood in the Big 8 Men’s Tennis Tournament at East Chapel Hill on April 24.
Van Mater qualified for the Mideast Regionals after pulling an upset over the 3-seed in the opening round 10-8. He defeated a player from Hillside in the 2nd round to advance to the semifinals.
On the final day of the regular season, Orange defeated Northwood 5-4 to finish 3rd in the Big 8 with an 8-4 record. After losing to Terry Sanford in the opening round of the 3A State Dual Team Playoffs, the Panthers finished the season 14-5, its best record in three years.
Orange opened the season with a 6-3 win over Southern Alamance. After losing consecutive matches to East Chapel Hill, the Panthers defeated Eastern Alamance on March 7 to start a four-match winning streak, which helped propel them to the playoffs.