Cedar Ridge Volleyball

The Cedar Ridge volleyball team will host the first Central Carolina Conference tournament championship game on Wednesday night. In the tournament semifinals on Tuesday, Cedar Ridge easily dispatched of Orange 3-0 on scores of 25-8, 25-17 and 25-10. Among the players who set the tone for the Red Wolves was sophomore middle blocker Addie Reid, who had five blocks for the Red Wolves. It was another strong game for junior Cameron Lloyd, who added to her school-record for kills with 15. Junior setter Julie Altieri went over 1,200 assists in her career. Cedar Ridge improved to 24-2 on the season. The win over Orange wasn’t only the third victory over its crosstown rival this season. It also tied the school record for most wins in a season, which was set by the 2015 team, which hosted the Eastern Regional championship match. On Wednesday night, Cedar Ridge will face Person in the CCC Tournament championship game. The Rockets knocked off Northwood in Pittsboro in Tuesday’s other semifinal. First serve between the Red Wolves and the Rockets will be a 6PM at Red Wolves Gymnasium. On Saturday, Cedar Ridge will host the opening game of the NCHSAA State Playoffs. Time and opponent will be determined.

Photo by Angie Hurdle

There’s a wonderful uncertainty about conference tournaments that you can’t experience until you see it yourself.

Look no further than Monday night at Orange. The Lady Panthers volleyball team faced Western Alamance, a team that Orange had little trouble with in the regular season. Just last week, Orange traveled to Elon, could have parked in a one-hour zone and faced no repercussions, disposing of the Warriors 25-22, 25-8 and 25-15.

It was considerably different on Monday. No one could explain why, but the Warriors jumped out to a 2-sets-to-nothing lead. Perhaps Orange looked ahead to a potential third matchup against Cedar Ridge on Tuesday. Perhaps Western Alamance was more motivated to make a run for a 3A State Playoff birth.

A week after dominating the Warriors, the Lady Panthers had to rally and rally in order to pull out its second five-set win of the season, and its first since the season opener against Jordan. To start the fifth set, Western Alamance led 5-0 after several close calls went against Orange, which sparked a comeback triggered by junior Allie Wilkerson, who has consecutive kills.

After Avery Miller earned a side out for Orange to reduce the Western Alamance lead to 10-6, Orange sophomore libero Sadye Porter lined up to serve. And she would serve nine consecutive points to finish out the match. During that run, Wilkerson had two blocks and two kills, including match point as Orange finally earned a 15-10 fifth set win and the match.

The lesson is that in conference tournaments, nothing is ever certain.

While conference tournaments were common in men’s and women’s basketball during the Big 8 Conference, they were a non-entity in volleyball. But not in the Central Carolina Conference. And now, on Tuesday night, Orange and Cedar Ridge will meet for a third time this season.

As Western Alamance proved on Monday, it’s hard to beat a team three times.

It was another strong week for Hillsborough volleyball last week, which brings us to the Magnificent 7. Here are the seven athletes who established themselves last week on the tennis court, volleyball court, soccer pitch and gridiron:

Olivia Aitkin: A three-sport athlete at Cedar Ridge, Aitkin qualified for the 3A Central Women’s Golf Regionals. Aitkin competed in the Central Carolina Conference Tournament at Mill Creek Country Club in Mebane. Aitkin also recently committed to play softball at Amherst College in Massachusetts.

Melissa Benkowitz: The Cedar Ridge volleyball team had three players register 100 kills during the regular season. Benkowitz, who was arguably East Chapel Hill’s best player in 2020, transferred to Cedar Ridge over the summer and has grown into her role as an outside hitter. In the regular season finale against Carrboro last Wednesday at Red Wolves Gymnasium, Benkowitz led Cedar Ridge with eight kills. She also had six digs as the Red Wolves broke the school record for most wins in a regular season with 23. Cedar Ridge also finished with a perfect 12-0 record in the CCC after sweeping Williams on Monday.

Chloe Patz: A senior co-Captain for the Cedar Ridge women’s tennis team, Patz earned her first trip to the Mideast Regionals during the Central Carolina Conference tournament on Friday. Patz defeated a participant from Northwood to extend her season. Patz has been Cedar Ridge’s regular #2 singles player this season and has had several key victories, including one against Northwood on September 27 to ensure a 6-3 win. Northwood would go on to claim a share of the CCC championship with Walter Williams.

Jera Hargrove: Reached the 3A Mideast Regional women’s tennis finals for the third time in her career last week. Hargrove teamed with Erin Sollars in doubles play to defeat Williams’ Kaori Naruse and Lauren Turner during the Central Carolina Conference Tournament at the Burlington Tennis Center. Hargrove reached the Mideast Regionals in her freshman and sophomore years as a singles player. She was one of six Orange women’s tennis players who qualified for the Mideast Regionals.

Avery Miller: Had 12 kills and eight digs as the Orange volleyball team ended the regular season with a 3-0 win over Eastern Alamance on Thursday. It was Miller’s final regular season game for the Lady Panthers. Last Tuesday, Miller had five kills in a win over Western Alamance.

Ella Wimsatt: Led Orange with eleven kills in the win over Western Alamance. Also had a strong game against Eastern Alamance in Mebane as Orange secured fourth place in the CCC. The Lady Panthers will likely host a 3A State Playoff game on Saturday.

Konnor Johnson: The Orange freshman midfielder scored two goals as the Panthers defeated Person 4-2 on Wednesday at Rocket Stadium. Johnson also set up several scoring opportunities for the Panthers in its 1-1 draw with Cedar Ridge at Orange Soccer Park on October 11. It was the first brace for Johnson in his varsity career. He has four goals on the season.

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is junior setter Julie Altieri. Last week, the Red Wolves set the school record for wins in a regular season by beating Walter Williams and Carrboro to improve to 23-2 overall. On October 10, Cedar Ridge participated in a quad match where they defeated three teams that have either captured its conference championship or will be the top 3A team going into the 3A State Playoffs. The Red Wolves dominated Chapel Hill (champions of the DAC-VII Conference) Pinecrest (champions of the Sandhills Conference) and J.H. Rose (tied with D.H. Conley for the Big East title). Altieri was part of a contingent from White Cross that started playing against each other during elementary school that included Cameron Lloyd, Cameron Lanier and Grace Young. Together, that group has built a familiarity that has led Cedar Ridge to consecutive conference championships. On September 9, Altieri surpassed 1,000 career assists in a 3-1 win over Eastern Alamance in Mebane. Later this week, Altieri will surpass the 1,200-assists plateau when the Red Wolves play in the semifinals of the Central Carolina Conference tournament. Cedar Ridge will face either Orange or Western Alamance on Tuesday night at Red Wolves Gymnasium. In addition to being an All-Conference volleyball player, Altieri also has a 4.2 GPA and has been the starting setter for Cedar Ridge since she was a freshman.

We’ve done many interviews with Julie over the last few years. We didn’t want to burn her out by asking her to do another one last week, so enjoy this one that we taped last summer.

Through eight years in the Big 8 Conference, the Orange and Cedar Ridge volleyball teams annually competed against state championship contenders–namely Chapel Hill.

Yet they never had a chance to compete in a conference tournament simply because the league never held one.

This week that will change. The 7-team Central Carolina Conference volleyball tournament gets underway tonight with games in Hillsborough, Pittsboro and Roxboro. It will start an eventful week.

On Tuesday, the CCC semifinals will unfold with Cedar Ridge guaranteed to host one of the games. On Wednesday, there will be the tournament championship game. On Thursday, the pairings for the 3A State Tournament will be unveiled by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association. On Saturday, the state playoffs begin.

After they finished the regular season with road wins against Western Alamance and Eastern Alamance, Orange earned the #4 seed for the CCC Tournament. Once again, the Lady Panthers will face Western Alamance to open the tournament tonight at Panther Gymnasium in Hillsborough. Orange swept the regular season series from the Warriors, both by 3-0 scores.

The winner of Orange-Western Alamance will travel to Cedar Ridge on Tuesday. The Red Wolves received a bye into the semifinals after they captured the regular season title.

Also tonight, second-seeded Northwood faces 7th-seeded Williams. In Roxboro, 3rd-seeded Person welcomes #6 Eastern Alamance.

In Orange’s win over Western Alamance last week, sophomore Ella Wimsatt led Orange with eleven kills with an impressive 79% kill percentage. Wimsatt is second on the team with 104 kills. Senior Ella Van Tiem, who had ten kills against the Warriors, leads the team with 117.

Junior Caitlin Carden had 17 assists. Carden finished the regular season with 355 assists. She also led the team with 21 aces.

Cedar Ridge has already earned the top seed for the 3A State Tournament from the Central Carolina Conference after winning the regular season championship with a 12-0 record. The Red Wolves will hold that top spot regardless of who wins this week’s conference tournament. In all likelihood, Cedar Ridge will be the #1 seed for the Eastern Regional when the brackets are released on Thursday morning, meaning the Red Wolves will have home court advantage throughout the state playoffs.

As of right now, Northwood will be the #2 seed out of the CCC for the state playoffs.

Last week, the Red Wolves concluded the regular season with wins over Williams and Carrboro. The victory over the Jaguars was the sixth victory for Cedar Ridge against a team that has won its conference championship or will be the #1 seed out of its own league for the 3A State Playoffs (D.H. Conley, a 4A squad who lost to Cedar Ridge in August, plays in the 4A/3A Big East Conference and has won the league title. J.H. Rose will be the top-seeded 3A team from the Big East).

Cedar Ridge finished the regular season 23-2 overall. The school record for wins in a season is 24, held by the 2015 squad that hosted the 3A Eastern Regional Championship game, where it lost to Asheboro with a trip to the state championship match on the line.

Junior Cameron Lloyd, who eclipsed 500 kills in her career last month, finished the regular season with a team-high 213 kills. Another junior, Cameron Lanier, was second on the squad with 45 kills. Melissa Benkowitz, who transferred to Cedar Ridge from East Chapel Hill over the summer, successfully made the transition from libero to outside hitter and registered 117 kills.

Junior setter Julie Altieri, who will likely surpass 1,200 career assists this week, has a team-high 414 assists this season. Her career high for a season is 586 in 2019.

On Sunday, the NCHSAA released the latest RPI rankings. Cedar Ridge maintained its #1 ranking with a .712 RPI. J.H. Rose, who lost to the Red Wolves in three sets during a quad match at Chapel Hill High School on October 9, was ranked #2 at .695.

The CCC had four of the top eleven teams in the latest RPI rankings. Northwood, who finished behind only Cedar Ridge in the CCC, was ranked #3. Person was ranked #4. Orange came in at #11.

The Cedar Ridge volleyball team completed a perfect 12-0 season in Central Carolina Conference play on Tuesday night. The Red Wolves rolled past Walter Williams 3-0 on scores of 25-10 and 25-17 in the final two sets. It was also senior night. Justice Wilbourne, Phoenix Smith and Ava Lowry were all honored before the game. Wilbourne finished with two kills and a block in the third set. Smith is only getting going with her senior season. She’s been a member of two conference championship volleyball teams at Cedar Ridge. She also is a starting point guard in basketball. Last season, when Cedar Ridge was hampered by injury and illness, they often only suited up only five players, but Smith was out on the floor every game regardless of opponent. She also runs track and field. Lowry is an All-Conference softball player who will play college at North Carolina Wesleyan. Last year, Lowry hit .550 with 22 hits and 23 RBIs. She was a member of Cedar Ridge’s Big 8 Conference Championship team in 2019 as a freshman, where she hit .375. Cedar Ridge will try to finish the regular season with 23 wins when they face Carrboro on Wednesday night in the regular season finale at Red Wolves Gymnasium. Cedar Ridge has already broken the school record for most wins in the regular season, which was previously 20 by the 2015 team.

Last Thursday, the Cedar Ridge volleyball team cruised past Western Alamance 3-0 in Elon. The Red Wolves prevailed on scores of 25-16, 25-8 and 25-22. It was Cedar Ridge’s 21st consecutive conference win and put the Red Wolves one win away from completing a perfect Central Carolina Conference campaign. Here are highlights from the game, shot and edited by Sherry Lloyd.

Their conference winning streak is at 21 games. It’s been nearly two years since they lost a conference match.

Most importantly, Cedar Ridge volleyball has won the 2021 Central Carolina Conference championship.

Regardless, as the regular season enters its final week, one thing you won’t find Cedar Ridge volleyball doing is resting on its laurels. Coach Fiona Cunningham won’t allow it.

As match point was secured against Eastern Alamance on Tuesday night to officially clinch the league title, there was some celebrating by the Red Wolves, but it was emotionally balanced. Many of these Red Wolves have played together for three years. A year after winning the Big 8 Conference championship in a season shortened to eight league games by the pandemic, the Red Wolves aren’t happy with simply reaching the state playoffs.

Last there, there were 32 teams in the postseason. This year, it will be 64 again. It’s a wider postseason world that the Red Wolves will enter in two weeks, but one they’re prepared for.

Yet the CCC championship can’t be overlooked, not only because the Red Wolves are one win away from finishing with a perfect 12-0 league mark, but of the quality opponents they’ve defeated.

The latest RPI rankings from the North Carolina High School Athletic Association show Cedar Ridge ranked #1 in the 3A East Region. Of the top nine teams, four are from the CCC. That includes Northwood at #3, who the Red Wolves swept in Pittsboro on September 2. On September 28, the Red Wolves defeated the Chargers 3-1 to all but sew up the league title.

Person is ranked #4 and Orange is #9. The Red Wolves swept the regular season series against both of those teams, winning 3-0 each time.

“I think I knew it was possible to win the league,” Cunningham said. “We have a lot of strong teams in this conference. That means we’re prepared for what we’re going to see in the tournament.”

Eastern Alamance is #14, who the Red Wolves defeated 3-0 on Tuesday in Red Wolves Gymnasium. Junior outside hitter Cameron Lloyd finished with 17 kills and 13 digs. Setter Julie Altieri, who eclipsed 1,000 assists for her career against Eastern Alamance on September 9 in Mebane, added another 24 assists to her career total. Melissa Benkowitz added another seven kills.

The Red Wolves trailed only once in the whole match, when Eastern Alamance won the opening point of the third set off a kill by Makiya Graves. The Red Wolves immediately erased that with a 6-1 run, which started with a Lloyd kill set up by Altieri.

On Thursday night, the Red Wolves defeated Western Alamance 25-16, 25-8 and 25-22 in Elon to improve its mark to 18-1 overall, 11-0 in the CCC.

Against league opponents, Cedar Ridge has won 33 sets and lost just three. It opened the season by winning 24 consecutive sets over eight matches.

Yet this team will not stop testing itself as it ventures into the 3A State Playoffs, possibly as the #1 seed. On Saturday, the Red Wolves will play in a tri-match tournament at Chapel Hill High School. They will play four games, all against teams that have already clinched their respective conference championships. They will open against undefeated Green Hope at 9 AM. The Falcons are 11-0 in the Southwest Wake Conference.

Then they face Chapel Hill, a former Big 8 Conference rival that the Red Wolves had a heated scrimmage against in August. The Tigers are 11-0 in the DAC-VII, 17-1 overall.

Most importantly, the Red Wolves will face J.H. Rose at 1PM, who is ranked #2 in the 3A East Region. The game could decide homecourt advantage for the 3A East State Playoffs. Rose’s only loss in the Big East 3A/4A is to D.H. Conley, the defending 3A State Champions who Cedar Ridge has split two meetings with this season. Conley returned to 4A over the summer.

Cedar Ridge will conclude the day against Pinecrest at 2PM. The Patriots, a 4A team from the Sandhills Conference, is 16-1 and has already clinched the league title.

Cunningham, who organized the schedule, would have it no other way.

“I want to make sure that our girls are being pushed,” Cunningham said. “Last year, that was one of our bigger downfalls is when we only had nine games. We didn’t have a nonconference schedule and then we had to play some teams that weren’t like the ones we had to play. We’re trying to solve that before we get to the state playoffs.”

The Cedar Ridge volleyball team captured its second straight conference championship on Tuesday night. Last year, the Red Wolves won the Big 8 Conference title. This year, it’s the Central Carolina Conference title. Cedar Ridge improved to 17-1, 10-0 in the CCC with a 3-0 win over Eastern Alamance at Red Wolves Gymnasium. The Red Wolves got big games from junior Melissa Benkowitz, an East Chapel Hill transfer who registered 100 kills in Cedar Ridge’s first 14 games. Another valuable newcomer is sophomore Addie Reid at middle blocker. This season, Reid has 16 blocks, which leads the team. On Thursday, Cedar Ridge will travel to Elon to face Western Alamance. The Red Wolves will then participate in a tri-match at Chapel Hill High School on Saturday morning with some of the best teams in the state. For starters, Cedar Ridge will face undefeated Green Hope. Then the Red Wolves will face J.H. Rose, who is 14-1. Rose is ranked #2 in the current 3A East Region RPI standings, only behind Cedar Ridge.