If you couldn’t feel a sense of urgency from the Orange volleyball team on Tuesday night, you were numb.
Ella Wimsatt mixed her attacks between soft changeups that fell harmlessly between three players with overhead strikes that tried to put a hole into the new floor at Cedar Ridge. Senior setter Sadye Porter stepped in front of kill attempts by Cedar Ridge players that looked like speeding bullets, just to keep them off the ground and give Orange another chance at a point. Even setter Katie Silcott, a sophomore, came up with clutch blocks when her main role is setting up Wimsatt and Aubrey Jordan for kills.
Why the sense of urgency? For obvious reasons, it was the seniors last chance to beat Cedar Ridge at Red Wolves Gymnasium, something they’ve never done. Most of all, the past four years, the Orange volleyball team has been a formidable team in Hillsborough. But they’ve never been THE team in Hillsborough.
Until now.
On Tuesday night, Orange put a resounding end to four years of frustration with a 3-0 sweep of Cedar Ridge at Red Wolves Gymnasium. The Lady Panthers (8-3, 2-0 in the Central Carolina Conference) captured the match 25-18. 25-21 and 25-14. The win ended Cedar Ridge’s streak of 42 consecutive conference wins and their 31-match home court winning streak.
Plus, Orange broke Cedar Ridge’s eight-game winning streak in the series. The last time the Panthers beat the Red Wolves, it was October 8, 2019, also at Red Wolves Gymnasium.
Cedar Ridge’s last conference loss came against East Chapel Hill on October 15, 2019. Their last home loss was on September 20, 2022, when they fell to D.H. Conley, the defending 3A State Champions. The Red Wolves would win the 3A State Championship six weeks later.
While Orange coach Hope Heverly realized how important the match and the rivalry are, she had no idea the magnitude of the win.
“I didn’t know Cedar Ridge had gone that long without losing a conference match,” Heverly said. “I knew that was a lot at stake and I knew the girls had a long of drive coming in. But I didn’t know they had all those streaks. That makes this win a little sweeter.”
Orange will host Person on Thursday in Hillsborough. Tuesday’s match against Cedar Ridge was its ninth straight tilt on the road.
“The girls knew how important this game was,” Heverly said. “They were laser focused in practice on Monday. They made the adjustments they needed for today’s game. Every timeout, when we switched up something, they came out and switched it up. They came out with heart and desire to win together.”
Despite the two schools being evenly matched, Orange pulled away in the opening two sets. The third was a blowout. In the opening frame, Cedar Ridge led 10-6 after consecutive kills by Graylinn Serge assisted by Rachel Alverson, which led to an Orange timeout. Ella Wimsatt ended the run with a kill, then slammed the subsequent point home unassisted after it went off the fist of Cedar Ridge middle blocker Addie Reid.
Serge notched another kill to increase the Red Wolf lead to 12-8, but Wimsatt struck a thunderous attack to give Orange a side out. Aubrey Jordan registered two straight kills, while Wimsatt delivered a changeup to tie the set 12-12. The Red Wolves couldn’t chain together consecutive points after Porter notched an ace to put the Lady Panthers ahead 14-13 in the set, and Orange wouldn’t trail again in the frame and for most of the match. Jordan scored off an attack despite Silcott and Porter nearly colliding going for a loose ball. Ava Wilkerson rejected an attack from Serge to put Orange ahead 16-13.
Reid delivered a thunderous kill to cut the Red Wolf deficit to 18-16, but Wilkerson notched a kill when Reid’s block attempt went wide. Wimsatt notched four consecutive kills to increase the Orange lead to 23-17. Porter made a deep dig off a serve by Caroline Park that bounced over the net into the Cedar Ridge backcourt. Jordan ended the set with a swing from the near post.
Though Cedar Ridge extended the second set, they never led in the frame. Orange junior Abby Silinski had an ace during an 6-1 run to put the Lady Panthers ahead 7-3. Cedar Ridge responded with five straight points, including kills by Claire Hargett and Addie Reid. Orange came back with a 6-3 run with finishes from Jordan and Silinski.
After Cedar Ridge’s Rachel Alverson delivered an ace to cut Orange’s lead to 19-18, Jordan came back with another kill. and later got another to set up set point. Silcott scored off a block to put Orange ahead by two sets.
There was no drama at all in the third set. Orange jumped out to a 12-3 lead, which included Silinski delivering two aces and consecutive finishes from Wimsatt. Orange led by as much as 18-8. Silcott again got match point off a block to end a string of dominance by Cedar Ridge and put Orange into sole possession of first place in the Central Carolina Conference.