Story by Tim Hackett
It was a matchup between two teams that are among the top 20 seeds in HighSchoolOT’s first 3A volleyball playoff projections. It was a matchup between two teams that are among the top 20 teams in MaxPreps’ adjusted rankings. It was a matchup between two rival schools that have practically split the head-to-head series over the last dozen years. It was a matchup in front of a packed house of fans sporting the colors of their chosen side, with a little extra added for the sake of the rivalry – black shirts with “Beat Orange” on one side of the gym, white shirts with “Beat The Ridge” on the other. And the second installment of Orange vs. Cedar Ridge 2019, volleyball edition, lived up to the billing on Tuesday night in Hillsborough.
“With a rival team there’s usually high emotion. There’s a bigger fan group, and so there’s more noise and you can kind of become nervy,” Cedar Ridge head coach Anna Seethaler said. “The mentality of this game was just ‘This ball. Next ball. Let’s get this ball. How about this ball?’ So just a one point at a time mentality rather than ‘Let’s win in five.’”
The Red Wolves would need a serious comeback to even have a chance to win in five on this day, but their bounce-back efforts fell short: after splitting four tight sets with their cross-town rival, Orange (12-6, 7-3 Big 8) dominated in the fifth, fending off Cedar Ridge (15-4, 7-3) in a five-set affair. After Cedar Ridge took the first meeting between the two in five sets at Orange a month ago, Tuesday’s win brings Orange even with Cedar Ridge at third place in the strong Big 8 Conference, and adds another high-quality win to the Panthers’ ledger.
“Once we got into a rhythm we really showed up together and…well, it sucks to lose,” Seethaler said with an honest chuckle. “I mean, they’re a good team, and they showed up tonight.”
The gameplan that has proved successful for Kelly Young’s Panthers all season was evident again in the first two sets Tuesday: serve and pass well, cycle setters and set up offense from the middle and the right side. Seethaler says it isn’t necessarily harder to coach or defend a team that attacks from the right side as much as Orange does – “it’s the same as an outside, just on the opposite side of the court,” she quipped – but that didn’t help Cedar Ridge slow down Lottie Scully, who was strong in the second set especially in leading Orange to identical 25-21 victories in the first two frames.
Defensively, Orange did well to limit top Cedar Ridge outside Cameron Lloyd, but she can only be contained for so long – as the tight third set wore on, she finally broke out, delivering three kills over four points to vault the Red Wolves into a 23-22 edge. With Orange on match point just moments later, Cameron Lanier delivered a middle kill and Julie Altieri dropped in back-to-back service aces to give the home team the 26-24 win. Altieri sent the first serve of the fourth set long, but that was the only time Cedar Ridge trailed – a Scully ace brought Orange to within 19-17, but solid serving from Haley Cothran and Lanier helped Cedar Ridge to a comprehensive 25-19 victory.
Orange had played well in the first two sets, but Cedar Ridge had fully flipped the momentum – and the atmosphere – in the gym. But not for long. The Panthers’ level of play increased at the same rate as the “This is our house!” chants from their fans on the left side of the gym increased – Orange won the first four points of the fifth set and won nine of the first ten overall before Lloyd finally got the Red Wolves settled with a kill. But by then, it was too late: Seethaler had to burn both of her timeouts, and the Panthers’ lead in the first-to-15 sprint was much too great for the Red Wolves to overcome. Avery Miller provided a rare left side kill to put Orange up match point, but Cedar Ridge persisted through a Lloyd kill and a Lanier ace. But then, with the chants from the white-clad visiting contingent loud as ever, chaos struck: Lanier served at Orange libero Brooke Fryar, a common strategy despite her solid passing, again. Fryar’s return went back over the net but the only person who could make a play was Lanier, hustling in from the service line – her diving bump pass attempt sailed out of play, and Orange had sealed a five-set upset win over their longtime rivals with a 15-9 victory in set five.
It’s looking likely that both of these teams will make an appearance in the 3A volleyball playoffs in 2019, but there aren’t many more chances for either side to prove it deserves a higher seed than they are currently projected to hold. Cedar Ridge only has four regular season matches left, including one at home next week against a strong East Chapel Hill side, while Orange still has the two-time conference champ Chapel Hill among its final five contests. A loss almost certainly wouldn’t knock either Hillsborough team out of the postseason, but those games might serve as the final chance for them to turn some heads – if nothing else, Tuesday’s match proved both schools belong in the conversation for best in the conference, even though the 2019 season split won’t help to prove which school is the best in the city.