One. There has been only one.
In each of the two seasons where Cedar Ridge men’s tennis junior Josh Mayhew has finished a season, there was one person who has beaten him each year and kept him from winning the 3A State Singles Championship.
In 2021, it was a senior from Chapel Hill. This year, it was a freshman from Terry Sanford High.
On Saturday at the Piedmont Indoor Tennis Center in Greensboro, Drew Hedgecoe faced Mayhew for the second straight weekend. With the 3A State Championship on the line, Hedgecoe held off Mayhew 6-3, 7-5. It was the second consecutive year where the state championship boiled down to the top two players from the Mideast Region. Last Saturday at the Burlington Tennis Center, Hedgecoe defeated Mayhew 6-2, 6-3 in the Mideast Regional final.
Mayhew became the first player ever from Cedar Ridge to reach the state singles final in back-to-back years.
“We used to play tournament together when I was about ten,” Mayhew said about Hedgecoe. “We used to be around the same skill level. He just got really good.”
In 2021, Chapel Hill senior Dennis Perumov defeated Mayhew, then a sophomore, in both the state championship and Mideast Regional final. He was the only singles player to beat Mayhew last year.
Facing the best in the state, Mayhew wasn’t seriously challenged leading up to the state championship match on Friday. In the opening round, Mayhew defeated J.J. Woerner of First Flight 6-0, 6-2. In the quarterfinals, Mayhew rolled past Shiv Patel of South Point 6-0, 6-2.
In the semifinals, Mayhew turned back the challenge of Ajay Swisher of St. Stephens 6-0, 6-1.
Hedgecoe was just as dominant throughout the tournament. He lost only two games in the opening three matches. Last week in the Mideast Regionals, Hedgecoe didn’t lose a game in his three matches leading up to the regional championship dual with Mayhew.
Mayhew concludes what has been the most successful season for Cedar Ridge men’s tennis since they joined the 3A ranks in 2012. The Red Wolves won the Central Carolina Conference Championship. Mayhew went 19-2 this season. His only losses came against Hedgecoe.
Any parent who has dropped their child off to Orange Middle School may have already seen Mayhew working out and just didn’t realize it.
On March 14, after Cedar Ridge had finished a 9-0 win over Western Alamance, just about everyone went home. As the Red Wolves’ softball team played its own game against the Warriors, Mayhew remained on Cedar Ridge’s tennis court, where he had just won a singles match over Samuel Durham (6-0, 6-0), then teamed with teammate Seth Upchurch to win at #1 doubles 8-5.
While everyone else’s attention was turned to the softball game, Mayhew stayed behind and worked out by himself until the lights at the softball field were off.
Mayhew’s insatiable work ethic starts with a daily workout at 6:45 inside the Orange High Tennis Courts, where his father Steve (who is also the head coach of the Cedar Ridge men’s and women’s tennis teams) once played as a member of the Orange Panthers. After classes at Cedar Ridge, he has practice along with fitness sessions five days a week.
“There’s foot speed, sprints, a three-mile run, just to see how fast how I can do it,” Mayhew said. “Some matches against teams just aren’t very good hitting sessions, so I have to do more.”
Mayhew’s dominance throughout the course of this season was reflected through a rigorous schedule. This year, Mayhew faced Chapel Hill’s top player, Ayan Patel, 6-2, 6-2. The Tigers won the championship of the DAC-VII Conference. Mayhew also knocked off Carrboro’s Jonathan Baddour 6-2, 4-6, 10-3 on March 21. It was the only time during the regular season that Mayhew dropped a set. Mayhew defeated Baddour again in the 3A State Dual Team Tournament last month. After winning the Northern Lakes Conference championship, the Jaguars have reached the quarterfinals of the State Team Tournament, where they will host West Carteret later today.
In addition to Mayhew, Orange’s doubles team of senior Justin Conover and freshman Porter Pelphrey reached the state quarterfinals. After finishing fourth in the Mideast Regionals, Conover and Pelphrey defeated Wilson Fike’s Snyder Pearson and Hatten Gore 5-7, 6-3, 7-6. Conover and Pelphrey won the tiebreaker 7-2 to advance to the round of eight.
Shelby Crest’s Sam Thomas and Jonathan Peeler defeated Conover and Pelphrey 7-5, 6-3. In another testament to the power of Mideast Regional tennis, Carrboro’s tandem of Aidan Chung and Jonathan Baddour won the 3A State Championship, beating Costen Holtzman and Griffin Lovern 6-2, 6-4. Chung and Baddour, who also won the Mideast Regional championship, lost only nine game in four matches in the state tournament.