Cedar Ridge Volleyball

Ever get thrown off your routine? Have an interruption after setting your daily schedule by the weekday? By the hour?

Of course, you have. That’s been the theme of the past 21 months.

The pandemic has taken away time and tossed all of our collective schedules into the dumpster. Including this website.

In 2019-2020, there was a feature called the Magnificent 7 that honored seven athletes from Cedar Ridge and Orange High Schools for outstanding performances. Once the high school season finally got going last year, it was hard to compile a Magnificent 7 because the schedules were so thrown out of whack. There were games scheduled with less than 24 hours notice, games canceled with virtually no notice, and shutdowns where teams wouldn’t practice for days.

Things are slowly changing, but as you know, we’re far from out of the woods. On Tuesday, the Western Alamance football team had to reschedule a football game against Eastern Guilford because its previous opponent had a COVID outbreak. The Orange volleyball team will return to action after a COVID shutdown on Wednesday night against Southern Alamance in Graham.

Still, five varsity sports have started at Orange, with men’s and women’s cross country set to begin this weekend. At Cedar Ridge, there’s been a spectacular start for volleyball and women’s tennis, which are both undefeated. So it’s time to get back to the routine of the Magnificent 7. The best athletic performances through the opening two weeks of the season. We’ll do our best to diversify this list because some performers (Cameron Lloyd) are excelling game in and game out, we run the risk of being repetitive.

Here are the opening Magnificent 7 from the opening two weeks of the year:

Cameron Lloyd: Seriously, the entire list could be comprised of Cedar Ridge volleyball players. After beating Person 3-0 on Tuesday night, the Red Wolves have opened the season by winning its first 18 sets. Lloyd leads the team in kills with 49 kills through the opening five matches. So far, her season-high is 16 in the victory over defending 3A State Champion D.H. Conley on August 20. Against Carrboro on August 25, Lloyd had 14 kills, two aces and four digs. Cameron was honored as the first Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week last week.

Julie Altieri: What’s Ricky Morton without Robert Gibson (look up 1980s pro wrestling tag teams, young readers)? Altieri, a junior, is closing in on 1,000 career assists after the Red Wolves hot start. Altieri has started her junior season with her typical steady setting for Cedar Ridge volleyball. She had four aces in wins over Northern Durham and Riverside. She already has 115 assists in the Red Wolves first five matches. Altieri had 31 assists against D.H. Conley and 29 against Carrboro.

(Again, the list of Cedar Ridge volleyball players to honor could stretch beyond 2,000 words. More will be featured in this space in the weeks ahead.)

Ella Caltabiano: A freshman who didn’t start getting serious about tennis until two years ago, Caltabiano wound up winning the deciding tilt in her very first varsity match. Facing Voyager Academy, Caltabiano won her singles match at #4 singles. With the match even 4-4, Caltabiano teamed with Reagan Simmons to win at #3 doubles 8-3 and earn the victory for the Red Wolves. Caltabiano was this week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week.

Ella Van Tiem: Due to COVID-19, the Orange volleyball team has only had one match thus far. The Lady Panthers defeated Jordan 3-2 on August 20 in Durham. Van Tiem had a team-high 15 kills with 15 digs. It was a strong debut for a team that was sidelined shortly afterwards. Orange will return to action tonight at Southern Alamance.

Tea Jones: The Orange women’s tennis team has had to deal with the heat and long matches through the first two weeks. Jones, a senior, is 5-0 in singles action thus far. That includes two wins over Carrboro. On Monday night, Jones built a mystery over Sarah McLaughlin 4-6, 6-2, 10-6 as the Lady Panthers defeated the Warriors in its first-ever match in the Central Carolina Conference.

Carter Thompson: The Orange midfielder had a hat trick and an assist as the Panthers men’s soccer team defeated Henderson Collegiate 9-0 for its first win of the season at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary on Saturday. Honorable mention to Tyler Mann, who also notched a hat trick for the Panthers.

Nathan Sorrells: The Orange football team came up short against Chapel Hill last Friday, but sophomore running back Nathan Sorrells had a breakthrough performance. He compiled 57 rushing yards, and had a 35-yard catch-and-run touchdown pass from quarterback Wynston Brown in the fourth quarter. Sorrells finished with 113 yards from scrimmage against the Tigers.

The Cedar Ridge volleyball team played its first Central Carolina Conference game on Tuesday night, but the result was the same as the rest of their matches this season. The Red Wolves swept traditional power Person on scores of 26-24, 25-23 and 25-15. in the final set, Cedar Ridge junior middle hitter Cameron Lanier had six kills and one block. She also earned match point off an assist from classmate Julie Altieri. Junior libero Grace Young finished with 15 digs. Including a remarkable save off a Person spike that fooled so many people, the Rockets started celebrating the point. Young’s dig was sent to Altieri, who passed it to Cameron Lloyd for a point to go ahead 16-9. Lanier and Young are part of a junior class that has turned Cedar Ridge into a dominant team locally. The Red Wolves are 6-0 and have opened the 2021-2022 season by winning its first 18 sets. The Red Wolves will look to continue its dominance when they travel to Pittsboro to face Northwood on Thursday.

The first Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week for the 2020-2021 academic year is junior outside hitter Cameron Lloyd. It is the third time that Cameron has been honored in her Cedar Ridge career. The competition for the award was tight this week because several of Lloyd’s teammates had a huge week as the Red Wolf volleyball team started 3-0. Most memorable of all was the stunning 3-0 win over defending 3A State Champion D.H. Conley in Greenville, where Cedar Ridge avenged its only loss of the 2020-2021 season. Against the Vikings, Lloyd had 16 kills and two aces. Lloyd is a three-time winner of the Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week award. She is nearing 500 kills for her career. On Thursday, Lloyd added to her total as Cedar Ridge defeated Carrboro 3-0 on scores of 25-16, 25-18 and 25-15. Lloyd, the daughter of Joey and Sherry Lloyd of White Cross, led Cedar Ridge in kills last season as the Red Wolves won the Big 8 Conference championship. In just three years, she has helped the Red Wolves amass a record of 32-7 with three wins over teams that have won state championships since 2016. The victory over Carrboro on Thursday night was the first time Cedar Ridge had defeated the Jaguars since 2015. Cedar Ridge is 5-0 and will return to action on Tuesday for its first match in the new Central Carolina Conference. The Red Wolves will face Person in Hillsborough. It will mark the first time that Cedar Ridge and Person have squared off as conference rivals in any sport.

Volleyball: Cedar Ridge 3, Northern Durham 0

Three days after beating the defending 3A State Champions D.H. Conley, the Cedar Ridge volleyball team rolled past former Big 8 Conference rival Northern Durham 3-0 on Monday at Red Wolves Gymnasium.

The Red Wolves (4-0) played its fourth match in six days, but there was no sign of rust. Junior Cameron Lloyd led Cedar Ridge with eight kills, but sophomore Addie Reid came up with a career-high seven kills, which speaks to the increased firepower that the Red Wolves have developed over the course of the first week of the season.

Reid, who played sparingly in two matches at the end of last season, opened the year with four kills each in matches against East Chapel Hill and Riverside. Junior Anaya Carter had five kills and one ace.

Cedar Ridge captured the first set 25-13. They won 25-9 and 25-22. The Red Wolves have yet to drop a set in its four matches thus far.

Junior Julie Altieri finished with four aces. The Red Wolves will finish the week on Wednesday with a road trip against powerful Carrboro, who is 2-2 thus far. The Jaguars, which moved to 3A in the new Northern Lakes Conference this summer, won 27 consecutive games in the 2A Mid-State Conference. They captured back-to-back Mid-State Conference championships and won the 2016 2A State Championship. It will be the first matchup between the Red Wolves and the Jaguars since 2016, when Carrboro finished a perfect 30-0.

Women’s Tennis: Orange 9, Southern Alamance 0

The Orange women’s tennis team is off to its strongest start in at least a decade. The Lady Panthers improved to 3-0 with a 9-0 victory over Southern Alamance in Graham on Tuesday.

Sophomore Grace Pell started at #1 singles and won her match 6-1, 6-1. Senior Tea Jones started at #2 singles and captured her match 6-1, 6-1. Sophomore Erin Sollars, freshman Shannon Sollars, sophomore Makalya Davis and sophomore Isabelle Lynn completed the singles sweep for Orange.

In doubles play, sophomores Finley White and Pell teamed to win at #1 8-1. The only competitive match of the day came at #2 doubles, where Jinkie Andrews and Erin Sollars defeated the Patriots’ Faith Moore and Paicey Cameron 8-6. Katelyn Van Mater, who is now participating in her third sport at Orange (including soccer and basketball), teamed with Madelyn Horn to win at #3 doubles 8-2.

Orange 9, Riverside 0 (August 23)

The Orange women’s tennis team won its first road trip of the season with a 9-0 victory over Riverside in Durham on Monday. Lady Panthers coach Justin Webb named Jinkie Andrews the player of the match. Andrews won at #3 singles 6-2, 6-0 to improve her record to 2-0 on the season.

Finley White, who was a regular at #1 singles last spring, earned the top spot against the Pirates. White prevailed over the Pirates’ Delaney Schick 7-6 (7-5), 7-5. Grace Pell won at #2 singles over Sara Carbajal 6-0, 6-0. Tea Jones, Erin Sollars and Shannon Solars all won as Orange swept the singles matches.

In doubles play, Erin and Shannon Sollars defeated Schick and Carbajal 8-4. Faith Moore & Paicey Cameron won the tightest match of the day, beating Makayla Davis and Isabelle Lynn 9-7.

Katelyn Van Mater and Jones won over Juliet Paw & Alexis Hester 8-0.

Part of the reason for Orange’s earlier success is a strong turnover. Over 20 players on currently on the squad, which is the most Justin Webb has had since he became the Lady Panthers’ coach.

Orange will travel to Carrboro to complete a suspended match on Thursday, then play a regularly scheduled match. On August 16, Orange led the Jaguars 3-1 in Hillsborough when the match was interrupted by rain.

While many schools welcomed back high school football on Friday night, the Cedar Ridge volleyball team was busy serving notice to the rest of the state.

And they did it in hostile territory at the scene of its only loss from last year–against the defending 3A State Champions.

It wouldn’t be fair to call this a breakthrough victory. Cedar Ridge had one of those in 2019 when they beat defending 3A State Champion Chapel Hill in Hillsborough to open the Big 8 Conference season. Back then, Cameron Lloyd, Cameron Lanier and Julie Altieri were all freshmen.

After reaching the state playoffs in 2019, then winning the Big 8 title last winter, this edition of Red Wolves volleyball has started 2021 with the intention of ending with something bigger.

On Friday night in Greenville, Cedar Ridge defeated D.H. Conley 3-0 on scores of 25-20, 25-21, and 25-18.

Last January in the same location, Conley defeated Cedar Ridge 3-1 in a gym that was 85% empty as pandemic restrictions were still in place. While the stakes in Friday’s game were nowhere near as big, Cedar Ridge’s win came in a much more imposing atmosphere.

About three rows of students, decked out in Hawaiian shirts and dubbed the “Conley Crazies” by a banner hanging about the bleachers, were positioned directly across from the Red Wolves. They yelled as Cedar Ridge players served, but if it impacted the Red Wolves, they didn’t show it in the slightest.

Instead, Cedar Ridge Coach Fiona Cunningham and the reserves on the bench rejoiced in the silence that followed whenever Lanier or Lloyd slammed down a point against the hardwood floor of the Vikings’ gym.

Lanier finished with a team-high 18 kills, while Lloyd finished with 16.

“Lloyd and Lanier did an awesome job along with a few others hitting the ball,” Cunningham said. “But it was a team effort. Julie Altieri was great serving and so was Lauren Cecil.”

Conley, which won its opening matches against Heritage and Hoggard in three sets, opened with a 4-1 run in an opening set that had seven ties and five lead changes. The difference between January’s loss and Friday’s win for Cedar Ridge was a wider array of finishers and better execution. With the first set even 17-17, East Chapel Hill transfer Melissa Benkowitz stepped up with consecutive aces that spurred a 4-0 Red Wolf run. Sophomore Addie Reid had her only kill of the match, followed by another spike by Lloyd to put Cedar Ridge ahead 20-17.

Conley responded with three consecutive points to even the set at 20-20, but Lloyd slammed home a kill off an assist from Altieri, which started a string of five straight Red Wolf points. After an ace by Young, Lloyd scored set point as Cedar Ridge wrapped up the first frame 25-20.

“We have a strong, confident team,” Cunningham said. “It was a team effort and everyone had a vital role to play. We are not taking anything for granted and play every game to the best of our ability. The coaching staff is working hard to establish a positive and winning program.”

Cedar Ridge didn’t trail in the second set. They jumped out to a 4-0 lead behind two kills from Lanier and another from Lloyd. After the Vikings reduced its deficit to 9-7, Benkowitz notched a kill to return serve to the Red Wolves, then scored an ace that hugged the inside right line. Lloyd had consecutive finishes to push Cedar Ridge’s lead to 14-8.

Three straight Cedar Ridge returns that wound up in the net reduced its lead to 17-16, but Lanier came up with a strong block to end the run. Lanier registered back-to-back kills to increase Cedar Ridge’s lead to 20-17.

After Conley closed to 22-20, Lloyd teed off on a spike set up by Altieri, which wound up off the hands of a Viking and into the seventh row of bleachers. After Lanier set up another Lloyd kill, Lanier would finish the set with a spike that went off the hands of a blocker and bounced aimlessly off the court to give Cedar Ridge a 25-21 win.

The Red Wolves (3-0), who defeated Riverside in its home opener on Monday, will face Northern Durham at Red Wolves Gymnasium on Monday night. They will travel to perennial 2A power Carrboro on Wednesday.

When you’re a program that’s built a winning pedigree for the past two years, there’s nothing like the word “new.”

As in “new threats on offense” and “new players who can finish.”

That’s what Cedar Ridge Coach Fiona Cunningham is trying to establish as the Red Wolves prepare for the new Central Carolina Conference.

The newest Red Wolf factored big against her old team in the season opener.

Junior Melissa Benkowitz, an East Chapel Hill transfer, had ten kills and three assists in her first official game for the Red Wolves as Cedar Ridge swept East Chapel Hill 3-0 on Tuesday afternoon at Wildcats Gymnasium. After Cedar Ridge wrapped up the second set, Cunningham rested starters Cameron Lloyd and Cameron Lanier, while junior setter Julie Altieri also had reduced time. That left Benkowitz as the main outside hitter, and she had four kills and two aces in the final set. Benkowitz finished the second set with a kill off an assist from Altieri, followed by an ace to give Cedar Ridge the frame 25-15.

Junior Anaya Carter had a kill off an assist from Altieri on match point to put the third set away for the Red Wolves 25-21.

“It was a team effort today,” Cunningham said. “Every single player got on the court and every single player scored a point or contributed in multiple ways.”

Lloyd finished with six kills.

“Mel was a liber at East Chapel Hill,” Cunningham said. “Over the past year, she grew into some height during club ball and they started using her as an outside hitter. She plays beach (volleyball) and when she plays beach, she hits outside. So we’ve been giving her some time to swing on the pin and see how it works.”

Cedar Ridge (1-0) will return home to face Riverside on Thursday. Then comes a much-anticipated trip to Greenville to face D.H. Conley, the defending 3A State Champions. The Vikings defeated the Red Wolves in the second round of the 3A State Playoffs in January 3-1. Cedar Ridge captured the first set, one of only three sets the Vikings lost in the postseason. They swept Cox Mill in the State Championship match.

ORANGE 3, JORDAN 2

Playing without 2020 Big 8 Player of the Year Lottie Scully and junior All-Conference middle hitter Erin Jordan-Cornell, Orange still found a way to win its season-opener against Jordan in Durham 3-2 on Monday night. The Lady Panthers prevailed on scores of 25-18, 17-25, 25-20, 22-25 and 15-13.

In the absence of Scully, Ella Van Time had 15 kills, six blocks and 15 digs as the Lady Panthers captured its season opener for the fourth time in five years. Junior Allie Wilkerson added eleven kills, one ace, and 15 digs.

Junior Caitlin Carden established herself as the team’s premier setter, registering a whopping 40 assists, along with 16 digs and two aces. Senior Avery Miller, starting her third varsity season, had seven kills and ten digs.

Orange will travel to East Chapel Hill on Friday afternoon at 5.

WOMEN’S TENNIS: ORANGE 3, CARRBORO 1…SUSPENDED

The Orange women’s tennis team started its season against Carrboro at Panther Tennis Courts on Monday afternoon, but the match was suspended because of rain. At the time the match was halted, Orange led 3-1.

Grace Pell grabbed a win for Orange at #2 singles after her opponent had to retire due to injury. At #5 singles, sophomore Erin Sollars earned her first victory at the varsity level. Freshman Shannon Solars won at #6 singles, also her first win for Orange.

Orange women’s tennis coach Justin Webb hopes to continue the match at a later time. The Lady Panthers will return to action against Southern Alamance on Thursday in Hillsborough.

It was just like old times for Cedar Ridge junior Melissa Benkowitz. On Tuesday, the Cedar Ridge volleyball team defeated East Chapel Hill 3-0 at Wildcats Gymnasium in its season-opener. Benkowitz spent the first two years of her high school career with East Chapel Hill before transferring to Cedar Ridge over the summer. Through her first years at the varsity level, Benkowitz was a libero with the Wildcats. Now, she’s transitioning to an outside hitter role as Coach Fiona Cunningham tries to create more finishers in hopes of continuing the Red Wolves winning ways. On Tuesday, Benkowitz had ten kills and three aces as Cameron Lloyd, Cedar Ridge’s leader in kills the past two seasons, took the set off. Cedar Ridge captured its season opener for the fifth year in a row. The Red Wolves will host Riverside on Thursday in its home opener before journeying out to Greenville to face the defending 3A State Champions, D.H. Conley, who defeated the Red Wolves in the 2nd round of the 3A State Playoffs last winter.

Success brings expectations.

As they enter their third year together on Cedar Ridge’s volleyball team, juniors Cameron Lloyd, Julie Altieri and Cameron Lanier have built more than just a successful program after winning the 2020 Big 8 Championship during an undefeated (if pandemic shortened) regular season.

There’s a quiet, but apparent, confidence surrounding the team that was absent in previous years. Through years of playing middle school and summer travel ball, the players are intricately familiar with each other, their strengths, weaknesses and who to go for the kill when a big point is needed.

It’s clear even during scrimmages like the one held at a sultry Chapel Hill High School on Wednesday night. Cedar Ridge rolled past Middle Creek in two sets, the last ending with a 15-11 Red Wolf victory. That was nothing more than an appetizer to the main meal of seeing Chapel Hill and Cedar Ridge square off once again.

The Red Wolves have beaten the Tigers each of the past two seasons, though the Tigers won the 2019 3A State Championship.

Yes, it was a scrimmage between two teams who are no longer in the same league (Chapel Hill has returned to 4A, while Cedar Ridge remains in 3A as a member of the Central Carolina Conference.) But the intensity between two proud programs was crystal clear to anyone with functioning brain cells.

The Red Wolves and the Tigers battled through three sets, which Cedar Ridge winning the first 25-16 and the second 25-17. The third set, which was supposed to be limited to 15 points, wound up in Chapel Hill’s favor 24-22. Not that anyone was supposed to notice, since it was a scrimmage and all, but Cedar Ridge had five match points to complete would would have been a clean sweep, only to have the Tigers offset all of them to eventually salvage the final set.

On a sweltering night where it was still in the high-80s by 9:00PM, players wiped up slick spots on the court after almost every point.

“It’s hard to match game-level competition in your own gym,” said Cedar Ridge’s Fiona Cunningham, the 2020 Big 8 Coach of the Year. “Getting that tonight was undeniably helpful and allowed us to push ourselves a little more than we’ve been able to.”

The fact that a race to 15 turned into a race to 24, (in, you know, a scrimmage) says all you need to know about the competitive nature of this Cedar Ridge team, as well as what they expect from themselves as they embark into a new league.

The Red Wolves lost libero Marlee Rakouskas and setters Layne Foster, Haylee Cothran, ShiLi Quade and Nicol Anderson due to graduation. Essentially, the entire right side of its court.

In her second season, Cunningham has built a nonconfernece schedule that’s as lofty as her team’s hopes for 2021. They open at East Chapel Hill (another school that’s move up to 4A) on Tuesday. After its home opener against Riverside on Thursday in Red Wolves Gymnasium, Cedar Ridge will travel to Greenville to face defending 3A State Champion D.H. Conley on Friday. Last year, the Vikings defeated the Red Wolves 3-1 in the second round of the 3A State Playoffs.

Lloyd, Altieri, and Lanier were All-Big 8 Conference selections last season. For the second year in a row in 2020, Lloyd led the team in kills. She was second on the team with 19 aces and 88 digs.

One thing Cedar Ridge took away from the playoff loss to Conley was the need to develop more finishers. Cunningham hopes to spread the kills in 2021.

“I think we’re a little more balanced than last year,” Cunningham said. “There’s no doubt that Cameron Lloyd is a great outside hitter, but we’ve been working with our setter to get more ball distribution and get more hitters involved.”

A new addition is East Chapel Hill transfer Melissa Benkowitz, who led the Wildcats with 174 digs last season.

“She’s a solid ball control hitter whose really able to get some good swings from the outside that we didn’t have last year,” Cunningham said. “I think we have more confidence in our hitters to distribute the ball. Our setters have to have more confidence in our swingers to take swings.”

Sophomore Addie Reid received a promotion from the junior varsity squad and played extensively on Wednesday.

Cedar Ridge’s opening Central Carolina Conference game will be against Person on August 31 in Hillsborough.

This week’s Retro Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is junior middle hitter Cameron Lanier. In 2020-2021, Lanier was a starter for the Cedar Ridge volleyball team’s Big 8 Conference Championship team. For the week starting November 30, Lanier had 13 kills and three blocks in a 3-1 win over East Chapel Hill in Hillsborough. Lanier had a strong season that helped ascend Cedar Ridge to the 2nd round of the 3A State Playoffs. She was second on the team with 68 kills and led the squad with 19 total blocks. In the Red Wolves’ 3-0 win over Union Pines in the opening round of the state playoffs, Lanier had seven kills, two aces, five blocks, and two digs. Cedar Ridge will start the season with three games next week. They will open at East Chapel Hill on Tuesday before hosting Riverside in a long-awaited home opener on Thursday. On Friday, the Red Wolves will travel to defending 3A State Champion D.H. Conley, who handed Cedar Ridge its only loss last season in the 2nd round of the 3A State Playoffs. Cedar Ridge will host Person in its Central Carolina Conference opener on August 31.

This Retro Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week takes us back to December 7 to honor sophomore volleyball setter Julie Altieri. On December 10, Cedar Ridge defeated Northwood 3-0 in Pittsboro. Altieri finished with 28 assists, six digs and seven kills as the Red Wolves improved to 6-0 in its final match before Christmas. Altieri has a career record of 27-7 at Cedar Ridge. She has started on a Big 8 Conference Championship team, won a state playoff match, has beaten a defending 3A State Champion, has two wins over Chapel Hill, two wins over Orange and had an undefeated regular season. And she just finished her sophomore season. As Julie points out in this interview, volleyball season doesn’t really end for her. Since the season ended with a loss to eventual 3A State Champion D.H. Conley in Greenville, Altieri has alternated between indoor and beach volleyball, going to Florida, Indianapolis,and Texas, to name a few locations. Her older brothers, Eddie and Andrew, both played basketball at Cedar Ridge. Altieri mentioned that Conley will play the Red Wolves again as part of a daunting nonconference scheduled being lined up by Red Wolves Coach Fiona Cunningham. Along with her classmates Cameron Lloyd and Cameron Lanier, Cedar Ridge will start play in the new Central Conference in August.