If there were Madden ratings in volleyball, chances are almost of Cedar Ridge’s players would have been near 100 on Wednesday night.
And what better time to be operating at peak proficiency?
In possibly its finest performance of the season, the Red Wolves rolled past Orange 3-0 on scores of 25-11, 25-6 and 25-10 to win the Central Carolina Conference regular season championship at Red Wolves Gymnasium.
The Red Wolves finished the regular season 19-1, 12-0 in the CCC. It is the third straight regular season championship for the six Red Wolves seniors, and their sixth championship overall to go along with the 2021 3A State Championship, the 2021 Eastern Regional Championship and the 2021 Central Carolina Conference Tournament championship. Cedar Ridge will be the top-seed in the CCC Tournament, which begins on Monday. The Red Wolves will receive a bye into the semifinals and start play on Tuesday. Orange (15-9, 9-2) will be the #2 seed and will host Northwood on Monday night at Panther Gymnasium.
The Lady Panthers were held to a season-low 27 points. Their previous low was 60 in its first game against Cedar Ridge, a match where the Panthers had four set points to win the opening frame, but eventually lost 30-28.
The Red Wolves started the season with a loss to J.H. Rose. Following that, Cedar Ridge didn’t drop a set the rest of the regular season. They won 57 consecutive sets on its current 19-game winning streak. They also extended its home court winning streak to 22 in a row.
Cedar Ridge has now won 37 consecutive matches against conference opponents. Its last loss in a league match came against Orange on October 8, 2019.
“I think this game and Green Level were really good games for us,” said Cedar Ridge coach Fiona Cunningham. “We know we’ve been starting to hit our stride a little big more, which is nice. We’ve been trying to tell the girls to stay focused, keep ourselves in the system as much as possible. We started to see that come through today.”
Cedar Ridge outside hitter Cameron Lloyd, who is nearing 1,000 kills for her career, led the Red Wolves with eleven kills. Melissa Benkowitz had seven kills and two aces. Setter Julie Altieri, the all-time school leader in assists and aces, finished with 24 assists and four aces.
The Red Wolves’ defense was so dominant, Orange’s Ella Wimsatt was the only Lady Panther with multiple points. She finished with two kills.
In all three sets, Cedar Ridge pulled away with lengthy runs to override early Orange leads. The Red Wolves went on a 9-2 run, which included two aces from Benkowitz. Ahead 10-6, Cedar Ridge reeled off eight consecutive points off the serve of senior Anaya Carter. In the spree, Lanier had back-to-back kills, followed by a block that led to an Orange timeout. Carter’s block of an Orange attack ended the first set 25-11, which was as competitive as it would get all night.
After Orange got an opening ace from Caitlin Carden to start the second set with a 2-0 lead, the Red Wolves scored 12 straight points off the serve of Altieri, who had four aces in the set. During the run, Addie Reid notched two blocks while Lloyd racked up three more kills. Altieri’s quick kill off a dig by Benkowitz ended the second set 25-6.
Orange jumped out to a 6-3 lead in the third set following an early spike from Wimsatt. With Carter serving, this time the Red Wolves went on a 8-0 run. Lanier, Lloyd, Carter and Benkowitz all had kills, along with an ace from Carter to put the Red Wolves ahead 11-6.
Regardless of whether they win the conference tournament, Cedar Ridge has earned the CCC’s top-seed for the 3A State Playoffs, where they will defend their 2021 3A State Championship. Currently, the Red Wolves are ranked #2 in the 3A East Region behind only J.H. Rose, naturally. Most likely, they will be the #2 overall seed for the State Tournament.
“I think we have a lot of season left, hopefully,” Cunningham said. “So we want our girls to stay focused on that rather than the end of a chapter for a lot of them. But I look at them from a coach’s perspective and I look at it from a person who’s been with them for three years of their high school careers and is going to miss them dearly because of that. They will be a loss for this program both as people and as players.”