Month: October 2021

The Cedar Ridge volleyball team will play for the 3A Eastern Regional championship on Tuesday night. On Saturday afternoon, the Red Wolves defeated Northwood 3-0 in the Elite Eight of the 3A State Playoffs. Cameron Lanier got the kill on match point. Lanier finished with ten kills, two aces and two digs as the Red Wolves claimed its 29th win of the season. Libero Grace Young had seven digs, adding on to her team leading of 269 digs. This was Cedar Ridge’s fifth state playoff win in the calendar year of 2021. Last January, the Red Wolves defeated Union pines in the opening round of the 2020 3A State Playoffs. Thus far in the 2021 3A State Playoffs, Cedar Ridge has swept South Brunswick, South Johnston, Harnett Central and Northwood without dropping a set. In fact, Cedar Ridge has won 26 consecutive sets. They played nine matches in the month of October and didn’t lose one set. That included wins over Person and Northwood, who both reached the Elite Eight of the State Playoffs. As Lanier mentioned in this interview, volleyball wasn’t even her first choice of sport. Originally, she wanted to play softball. Young has played volleyball since her early days at the White Cross Recreation Center and has committed to play at UNC Asheville. You can hear the 3A Eastern Regional Championship game on Tuesday night on Hillsboroughsports.com.

In January, Cedar Ridge had to go into Greenville in hopes for playing in Raleigh for the 3A state volleyball championship.

Now, a team from Greenville will have to go through Cedar Ridge to get to Raleigh.

On Saturday afternoon, junior Cameron Lloyd tallied eleven kills and 15 digs, while Cameron Lanier added nine kills and four digs as the Red Wolves swept Northwood 3-0 in the 3A state quarterfinals at Red Wolves Gymnasium. Cedar Ridge, the champions of the Central Carolina Conference, will host J.H. Rose for the 3A Eastern Regional Championship on Tuesday night in Hillsborough.

Rose, which has constantly been ranked #2 in the 3A East RPI standings throughout the season, defeated Person 3-1 on Saturday in Greenville.

The winner of Rose-Cedar Ridge will play for the 3A State Championship at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh against the winner of the Western Regional Championship game between North Iredell and Fred T. Board next Saturday at 1:30PM.

In a matchup between two Central Carolina Conference rivals, it was the third time the Red Wolves (29-2) defeated the Chargers (24-6) this season, and the game fit a similar pattern from the previous two meetings. For the second straight match, the Chargers extended the Red Wolves into overtime in the opening set, which Cedar Ridge won 28-26.

Once again, the Red Wolves depth wore down a Chargers team that suited up just eight players.

“We went into the game thinking consistency,” said Cedar Ridge coach Fiona Cunningham. “They’re a good team and we know they can take a set from us. We just had to stay unfazed. Let them get their good swings. Let them put the ball away and let them come right back. Don’t let it turn into a run. Don’t let it turn into a bunch of errors. We did a really good job of that.”

While Northwood only led once the entire match, at 3-2 in the opening set after a kill by Hannah Forbes, the opening two sets were tight. In the first frame, Cedar Ridge ran off five straight points to build a 17-10 lead behind an ace from Cameron Lanier and a kill from Melissa Benkowitz. Northwood drew within 23-22 after a 7-2 run, which included three kills from sophomore Asia Thigpen, the daughter of UNC co-defensive coordinator Tommy Thigpen.

Cedar Ridge had four set points to take the first set. Northwood senior Annika Kearsley sent the set into overtime off a kill assisted by Ainsley Fauth. After a finish by Lanier, the Red Wolves had another chance to finish the set, but a return by the Red Wolves went wide. Cedar Ridge finally took the set when Melissa Benkowitz’ attack was blocked by a Charger, but it touched the antenna on the net. On set point, Cedar Ridge’s Julie Altieri took a dig from Lloyd and dunked it over the net, setting off a huge reaction from a rowdy Red Wolves student section.

“Julie is great in regards to ball distribution,” Cunningham said. “She knows when to go for the dump or not. That’s part of being a setter is knowing how to run the court. It’s one thing we’ve worked really hard on this year.”

Lloyd, Lanier and Melissa Benkowitz all recorded kills to open the second set, where Cedar Ridge jumped out to a 6-3 lead. An ace by Grace Young put the Red Wolves ahead 10-5 and forced a Northwood timeout. Again, the Chargers got close late behind kills from Thigpen and Natalie Bell. The Chargers served with a chance to tie trailing 20-19, but the ball went into the net. it was a mistake Northwood never stopped paying for.

The Red Wolves reeled off four of the final six points, including an ace from Altieri, followed by a spike from Lloyd to make it 23-20. Lloyd provided a soft tap over the net for the Red Wolves 24th point, and a kill by Lanier was blocked wide by a Charger for set point.

“I think there are plenty of teams that have super strong athletes in our conference,” Cunningham said. “But we have six players on the court at all times who can contribute. That’s really hard for teams to put together in high school ball.”

The third and final set opened with a thrilling second point, which featured a five-dig sequence by Cedar Ridge. A spike by Tigpen was saved by Altieri with an outstretched fist, which led to a Lanier kill. With the Red Wolves leading 14-5, an attack by Forbes bounced off Altieri’s fist high into the air and bounced three times off the overhanging basketball backboard. Benkowitz remained composed and calmly played the ball once it finally came down. It led to Altieri setting up Lloyd for the kill.

Lanier spiked home match point, her ninth kill of the day. Altieri finished with 28 assists and four aces.

This will be the first time since 2015 that Cedar Ridge has hosted the 3A Eastern Regional Championship match. Six years ago, the Red Wolves were coached by Charlie Oakley and lost to Asheboro 3-1 with a trip to the state championship game on the line.

It has been a full Halloween weekend for Brian Schneidewind.

Just hours after he organized Orange High’s Homecoming festivities on Friday night, he woke up early Saturday morning for his second trip to Pittsboro in as many weekends. As Orange’s cross country coach, he rode back up 15-501 that afternoon after the Panthers won only its second regional championship in team history.

He arrived back to his Hillsborough home just in time to watch his beloved Michigan State Spartans pull off a comeback they’ll be taking about for decades in East Lansing, where he once lived. Against hated rival Michigan, the Spartans roared back from a 30-14 deficit to beat the Wolverines 37-33 at Spartan Stadium.

Yet even that illustrious comeback paled in comparison, at least in his mind, to what his cross country team pulled off at Northwood High School on Saturday morning. The Panthers won the 3A Mideast Regional championship with 62 points. It came just one week after Orange claimed the Central Carolina Conference championship on the same course in Pittsboro, the third conference title in team history.

Northwood came in second in the team standings with 78 points. Durham School of the Arts finished third with 101. Cedar Ridge was 12th with 283.

The common cliche about cross country events along a 3.1 mile course is “it’s a marathon, not a sprint.” It certainly didn’t end that way on Saturday when Orange’s Spencer Hampton and Carrboro’s Quinn Baker were engaged in a race to the finish line for first place. Hampton led by about 150 feet with 165 yards remaining. But Baker ran down Hampton and passed him with about 150 meters remaining.

Hampton, who finished second in the conference meet last week, finished as the overall runner-up again with a time of 16:17.60. That was only .26 of a second behind Baker. Hampton led a championship effort by Orange which included sophomore Gabriel Schmid coming in fourth at 16:44.31. Sophomore Alden Cathey, a member of the Panthers’ Conference 9 Championship team in men’s lacrosse last spring, crossed the finish line 14th. In a field of 130 competitors, Orange’s Ethan Horton finished 19th at 17:50.01.

Just hours after he was crowned Homecoming King and played his final game as a member of the Orange football team at Auman Stadium in Hillsborough, senior Nick Pell finished 23rd at 18:10.52.

Cedar Ridge junior Roman Morrell qualified for the 3A State Championships individually. He came in 9th place with a time of 17:26.05.

Schneidewind, in his first season as Orange’s cross country coach, previously served as the coach at Millbrook for 12 years. Orange’s last regional championship team was in 2008. Ironically that year, the Panthers finished ahead of Millbrook, coached by Schneidewind, at a major invitational.

“I had no clue where Orange was at the time,” Schneidewind said. “I didn’t even know where Hillsborough was.”

Schneidewind moved to Hillsborough after he wife got a job at Duke University. He has taught at Orange for five years while also coaching track & field.

Hampton’s 2nd place finish continues what has been a memorable year. In June, Hampton finished 2nd in the 3,200 meters at the 3A State Track and Field Championships at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro. He won the Mideast Regional Championship in the 3,200 meters at Southern Lee High School.

“I knew we had a good team from track season,” Schneidewind said. “Obviously, you never know how things are going to translate from track to cross country. Additionally, I definitely saw the kids were working hard in track, but it was great to see that they were willing to work and put it even more miles in cross country this fall.”

Before this season, only one Orange runner had finished a cross country race in less than 16 minutes. This year, there have been two–and it happened in the same event.

On October 2 at the Great American Cross Country Festival at WakeMed Soccer Complex in Cary, Hampton finished at 15:44.80. Schmid, who competed in a separate race, completed the course in 15:8.90.

“About midway through this season, Gabe definitely took his running to the next level,” Schneidewind said. “I knew Gabe was good from his freshman year in track. Around October, he became a top level runner.”

For Pell, it was his first race in over a month after he suffered a hip injury playing football. Pell, who caught a touchdown pass against Granville Central last month, actually went home with the regional championship trophy on Saturday.

“It’s not every day that you can hold up your regional cross country trophy with your senior football placard and a Homecoming crown,” Schneidewind said.

Cedar Ridge’s Zoe Wade qualified for the 3A State Women’s Cross Country Championship. Wade, who finished fourth in the CCC Championships, came in 17th in the regional championships.

Orange’s top female runner in the regionals was sophomore Kassi Scarantino, who finished 30th at 23:06.16.

The 3A State Championships will be held next weekend at the Ivey Redmond Sports Complex in Kernersville.

Brittany Daley: As her women’s soccer career winds down at Division III Greensboro College, former Cedar Ridge centerback Brittany Daley was honored by the USA South Conference. Daley was named to the All-Sportsmanship team. In her final game at Greensboro College’s Pride Field, Greensboro defeated North Carolina Wesleyan 1-0 on Sunday. Daley had a chance to score her first career goal for the Pride as she lined up for a penalty, but the kick was knocked away by Battling Bishops’ goalkeeper Alicia Jacobs in the 80th minute. Daley had a career-high three shots in the match. On Tuesday, Mary Baldwin University defeated Greensboro 2-0 in the opening round of the USA South Conference Tournament in Staunton, VA. In her final game, Daley played all 90 minutes. The Pride ends the year 5-10-3 overall, 3-4-2 in the USA South. Daley concludes her Greensboro College career with 55 career games and 52 starts. She was a starter for the Pride when they won the USA South East Division championship last spring.

Kayla Hodges: The former Orange High midfielder was honored on Senior Day by the Elon women’s soccer team last Sunday before its game against Towson at Rudd Field. The Tigers defeated the Phoenix 1-0. Hodges had a shot on goal and finished with two shots. Elon is 6-5-1 overall, 1-2-1 in the Colonial Athletic Association. Elon will conclude the regular season with a trip to Drexel on Sunday.

Taylin Jean: On Saturday, the Carson-Newman women’s soccer team defeated Limestone 1-0 at McCown Field in Jefferson City, TN. Jean replaced starting Limestone goalkeeper Katie Maher in the the 40th minute. Jean played the final 50 minutes and made one save. Limestone falls to 9-4-1 overall, 5-4-1 in the South Athletic Conference.

Jordan Rogers: Like Daley, Rogers was named to the All-USA South Sportsmanship team for William Peace University. The Pacers ended its season last weekend after a double overtime loss to Salem College. Peace concluded the season 4-7-3 overall, 2-5-2 in the USA South.

Trenton Gill: The N.C. State football team became bowl eligible after beating Louisville 28-13 at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh on Saturday night. Gill, the Wolfpack’s punter, was busy on a night where the defenses largely dominated. He had six punts for an average of 45.4 yards. His longest was 53 yards, one of two punts over 50 yards. Five of his six punts were downed inside the 20-yard line. Gill also had five kickoffs with three touchbacks. The Cardinals were coached by former Orange High quarterback Scott Satterfield.

Keshawn Thompson: Charleston Southern defeated Campbell University 27-14 at Buccaneer Field in Charleston, S.C. on Saturday afternoon. Thompson, coming off 12-tackle game against Kennesaw State, finished with six tackles for the Camels. Campbell is now 3-5 overall, 2-3 in the Big South Conference.

Adam Chnupa: The Elon football team suffered a disappointing 45-21 loss to #5 James Madison at Bridgeforth Stadium in Harrisonburg, VA on Saturday. Adam Chnupa played special teams and defeated for the Phoenix. Elon drops to 4-4 overall, 3-2 in the Colonial Athletic Association. They will host Villanova next Saturday at Rhodes Stadium

Bailey Lucas: The Meredith volleyball team build a ten-game winning streak before it was snapped during a quad-match on Saturday afternoon. To start the day, the Avenging Angels defeated North Carolina Wesleyan 3-1 at the Grant Center in Danville, VA. Lucas started and finished with 16 assists, one kill and four digs. The winning streak ended when Averett defeated Meredith on scores of 25-14, 25-15, 19-25 and 25-20. Lucas had 16 assists and 12 digs. Meredith concluded the regular season 21-7 overall, 15-3 in the USA South Conference. On Tuesday, Meredith defeated crosstown rival William Peace 3-1 at the Hermann Athletic Center in Raleigh. Lucas led Meredith with 29 assists and six digs. Meredith will start play in the USA South Tournament on Tuesday with another match against Peace.

Six years ago, a regular season matchup between Orange and Eastern Alamance would have led to an overflow crowd at Auman Stadium in Hillsborough.

Somehow, two schools separated by 13 miles never could find the time to play a regular season game when the talent levels were comparable. The best they could muster were annual August scrimmages the week before the season started, and even those drew strong gates in Hillsborough and Mebane.

On Friday night, things were different. In terms of talent level, Orange and Eastern Alamance shared the same league in name only, and the Panthers knew it. Eastern Alamance (8-1) went into the game with a share of the Central Carolina Conference championship already in the bag. Orange was 2-7 and had been held below 150 yards total offense seven times through a difficult season.

Knowing the steep odds his team faced, Orange coach Van Smith decided to make the theme of Senior Night fun.

There were no less than five onside kick attempts. Orange played in the the Emory & Henry formation, where seven offensive lineman gather on the right hashmark while the quarterback, a long snapper and a running back, gathered on the other side of the field.

And they did this for a full quarter.

Of course, Orange could run more gimmick plays than an uber annoying Madden ’21 player and still not change the end result. Eastern Alamance convincingly won 48-27 in front of a huge crowd at Auman Stadium. The Eagles officially clinched the Central Carolina Conference outright with its eighth straight victory. They will likely be the #1 seed in the 3A Eastern region when the state playoff brackets are unveiled today.

Eagles senior quarterback Hunter Douglas, who left the game late in the second quarter to avoid any injury risk, factored in on five touchdowns. He threw for four and ran for another.

Yet the game couldn’t have started any better for Orange (2-8, 1-4 in the CCC). Junior Wynston Brown bobbled the opening kickoff, then sprinted up field for an 88-yard return for a touchdown. It was Orange’s only special teams touchdown of the year.

If that wasn’t enough, junior linebacker Jake Wimsatt picked off a Douglas pass on the Eagles opening possession. Orange caught Eastern off balance in its unorthodox formation, which allowed quarterback Jared Weaver to throw a 59-yard pass to sophomore Nate Sorrells. Weaver found Wimsatt in the end zone on the next play. In the opening three minutes, Orange had nearly doubled its scoring output (13) from the previous two games combined (7).

“That was a fun of a first quarter as we’ve had in a long, long time,” Smith said. “I just thoroughly enjoyed it. But the end of the first quarter, we were behind. But we were just having fun.

It was the first time that an opposing team had scored on Eastern Alamance in nine quarters.

“In most games we played, we were outgunned and outmatched,” Smith said. “But they never had any quit in them. We had some wrinkles that we threw at them tonight. I figured ‘What the heck? What do we have to lose?’ We created some fun and had some energy at practice this week.”

The energy that Orange built was palpable early, but it also disappeared faster than Space Jam 2. Orange didn’t get another first down on its final nine series of the first half. Eastern proceeded to reel off 42 consecutive points. It started when Douglas found Antoine Pugh on a 47-yard gain for the first of many Eastern trips to the Orange red zone. Triston Keck caught the opening Eagle touchdown pass from Douglas. It was Keck’s third touchdown of the year.

The Eagles took the lead for good on its next drive when Douglas hit Ce’Darian Williams for a 56-yard touchdown pass on a one-play drive. Karsyn Johnson’s extra point put the Eagles ahead 14-13.

The Emory and Henry well had run dry for Orange by this point, and Eastern started its next drive at the Panther 38-yard line. After the Panthers were called for pass interference, Eastern’s leading rusher Joshua Murray had a 13-yard run, which was his final play of the night. Douglas scored on a 4-yard keeper up the middle, his third rushing touchdown of the year.

Late in a first quarter that took 47 minutes to play, Eastern linebacker Joey Teixeira recovered an Orange fumble. Freshman Tyrek Samuel, in his varsity debut, replaced Murray and scored on a two-yard run to give the Eagles a 20-13 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Douglas opened the second quarter with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Devin Clark. Eastern blocked an Orange punt on the next possession, which led to Samuel’s second touchdown of the game, on a ten yard run. On his final drive of the night, Douglas hit Samuel again for a 3-yard touchdown pass to put Eastern ahead 42-13.

There’s something to be said after going down swinging, which was exactly how each of the 17 Orange seniors played their last game. There was nose guard Kameron Harshaw, who entered the game with a team-high 26 tackles for loss. Harshaw left the game twice after injuries to his left leg, but came back each time and recorded several more tackles for losses in the second half.

Senior quarterback Jared Weaver had his best half of the season in the second half. He had career-highs for completions, attempts passing yardage, total offense and touchdowns. He finished 17-of-25 for 218 yards and three touchdowns.

After Samuel scored the opening touchdown of the second half, Weaver hit sophomore Nate Sorrells for a 38-yard touchdown pass.

Orange’s final touchdown of the season came off a sustained 13-play, 81-yard drive. Weaver hooked up with Sorrells fora 27-yard gain to push the ball into the red zone, then targeted Sorrells again for a 23-yard touchdown.

On the subsequent two-point conversion, fullback Jackson Wood appeared he was going to be stopped short. But Wood, a diehard Virginia Tech fan, showed enough fight and grit that would have made Frank Beamer proud to just get over the goal line and reduce Orange’s deficit to 48-27.

And that was the theme of Orange’s first season in the Central Carolina Conference. On Monday morning, Smith will start with the daunting process of replacing nine starting seniors on defense, as well as his starting quarterback and a leading rusher who left the team at midseason.

“Weight room. Weight room. Weight room,” Smith responded when asked how he would start the offseason. “I sure am going to miss this group. We had every reason to not show any emotion after the game against Williams last week. Instead, they played with energy. I’m proud of these seniors.”

EASTERN ALAMANCE 48, ORANGE 27

EAL–20 22 6 0–48

ORA–13 0 6 8–27

ORA–Wynston Brown 88 kickoff return (Darius Satterfield kick)

ORA–Jake Wimsatt 4 pass from Jared Weaver (kick failed)

EAL–Triston Keck 5 pass from Hunter Douglas (Karsyn Johnson kick)

EAL–Ce’Darian Williams 56 pass from Douglas (Johnson kick)

EAL–Douglas 3 run (kick failed)

EAL–Tyrek Samuel 2 run (Johnson kick)

EAL–Devin Clark 4 pass from Douglas (Douglas to Keck)

EAL–Samuel 10 run (Johnson kick)

EAL–Samuel 3 pass from Douglas (Johnson kick)

EAL–Samuel 4 run (kick blocked)

ORA–Nate Sorrells 38 pass from Weaver (run failed)

ORA–Sorrells 23 pass from Weaver (Jackson Wood run)

RUSHING: EASTERN ALAMANCE 30-168 3 TD (Samuel 12-110 2 TD, Jason Ball 5-31, Joshua Murray 6-23, Zephaniah Gattis 5-8, Douglas 1-3 TD, team 1-(-7).

ORANGE 24-17 (Weaver 11-18, Sorrells 5-5, Ronald Cooper 3-4, A’Mare Morgan 5-(-10)

PASSING: EASTERN ALAMANCE 10-22 173 yards 4 TDs 2 INTs (Douglas 9-16 165 yds 4TD, INT, Ball 1-6 INT 8 yds)

ORANGE 16:27 218 3 TD (Weaver 17-25 218 yards 3 TD, Brown 0-2)

RECEIVING: EASTERN ALAMANCE (Samuel 3-18 TD, Murray 2-16, Williams 1-56 TD, Antoine Pugh 1-47, Clark 1-16 TD, Hunter Westbrooks 1-15, Keck 1-9 TD)

ORANGE: (Sorrells 9-153 2 TD, Brown 3-34, Morgan 2-22, Elijah Danley 2-8, Wimsatt 1-4 TD,

The further Cedar Ridge volleyball goes into the postseason, the tougher the tests will be.

At least, that was logic dictates. While Harnett Central did come the closest than any other team thus far in the 3A State Playoffs to actually winning a set against the Red Wolves, Cedar Ridge still advanced comfortably to the state quarterfinals on Thursday night.

In front of a crowded Cedar Ridge student section and Harnett Central fans shaking cowbells, the Red Wolves (28-2) defeated the Trojans 3-0 on scores of 25-18, 25-8 and 25-8. The Red Wolves will face Central Carolina Conference rival Northwood on Saturday in the Elite Eight.

Harnett Central, the champions of the 4A/3A All American Conference, conclude the season 19-8. The Trojans had won eight in a row, and 12 of its last 13, going into Thursday night.

“I am so proud of my team for handling themselves well tonight,” said Cedar Ridge head coach Fiona Cunningham. “They adjusted well to the loud crowd on both sides. In the first set, we tried to do too much. In the second and third sets, we came back to our game, which is ball controlled oriented.”

Junior outside hitter Cameron Lloyd finished with 15 kills, six digs, five aces, and three assists as the Red Wolves clinched its first trip to the regional semifinals since 2015. The opposite outside hitter, Melissa Benkowitz, finished with seven kills and nine digs. Libero Grace Young, who has committed to UNC Asheville, led Cedar Ridge with 21 digs. Setter Julie Altieri had 29 assists.

Cedar Ridge, the #1 seed in the East, is 15-1 at home this season.

There were five ties and two lead changes in the opening set, easily the tightest of the night. After a Cedar Ridge return went long, Harnett Central even the frame 12-12. The Red Wolves went on an 8-2 run, which included Anaya Carter sending an offspeed attack softly over the net off a feed from Altieri. After a side out for the Trojans, Altieri played the ball off the net and passed it to Lanier, who attacked from a standing position and found an open spot in the Trojans’ end.

Benkowitz and Altieri had kills to push the Cedar Ridge lead to 20-14. The Red Wolves wrapped up the set 25-18 after a Trojan overhand attack went long.

That was the end of the drama for the night. Cedar Ridge jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the second set behind two kills from Carter, an ace from Graylinn Surge and two aces from Lloyd. With Cedar Ridge leading 15-5 after an ace from Benkowitz, sophomore Addie Reid sent the gym into delirium with three consecutive kills, the last one unassisted, which forced another Trojan timeout.

“Addie has grown so much this season,” Cunningham said. “She knows how to get the team hype, the team loves seeing each other be successful and she is so good at bringing her team up.”

In the third set, Cedar Ridge opened with a 13-2 run. During that spurt, Lloyd had three kills and an ace. Sophomore Natasha Buchler-Fosado, who spent this season on the junior varsity squad, played extensively down the stretch. Carter, Benkowitz and Lanier had kills leading up to match point.

Cedar Ridge has now won ten in a row since dropping a 2-0 decision to Green Hope during a quad-match at Chapel Hill High School.

It won’t be any surprise to anyone who has followed the RPI rankings that of the final four teams remaining in the 3A Eastern Region, three are from the Central Carolina Conference. Cedar Ridge will face Northwood on Saturday at Red Wolves Gymnasium in the state quarterfinals. The Chargers, who were swept by the Red Wolves in the regular season, defeated 4th-seeded Croatan on Tuesday in Newport.

Person, who defeated Northwood last week in the Central Carolina Conference tournament semifinals, defeated Hunt in Wilson to advance to the state quarterfinals. The Rockets will travel to Greenville to face J.H. Rose on Saturday.

“I am not surprised but he strength of the Central Carolina,” Cunningham said. “We are so proud of our conference for bringing it and we cannot wait to see Northwood on Saturday because we know they will bring it.”