Cedar Ridge High School

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is sophomore cross country runner Naomi Dyreng. This season, Dyreng was the top qualifier for Cedar Ridge in the 3A State Cross Country Championships, held on November 5 at the Ivey Redmon Sports Complex in Kernersville. Dyreng finished 23rd in the 3A State Championships. Last season, Dyreng played tennis, but opted to focus on cross country this fall. She finished 2nd in the Central Carolina Conference championships at Lake Cammack Cross Country Course in Burlington on October 19. Dyreng had another runner-up finish during a conference meet on August 31. The Cedar Ridge women’s cross country team narrowly missed qualifying as a team for the state championships by only eight points. At the Mideast Regional championships, Dyreng finished 5th individually. Cedar Ridge finished 5th in the Mideast Region with 152 points, while Eastern Alamance came in fourth with 144. Next season, Dyreng hopes to lead Cedar Ridge to qualify as a team in the state championships. Dyreng is also a member of the Cedar Ridge band, where she plays French horn. Dyreng will focus on track and field season this spring. 

GREENVILLE–The city of Greenville will always be linked to the most successful senior volleyball class in Cedar Ridge history.

It’s where the Red Wolves suffered its first loss under head coach Fiona Cunningham. It’s where they first served notice to the rest of North Carolina that there were a state championship contender, a dream they later fulfilled in 2021.

Now, It’s where their unparalleled run in Hillsborough volleyball history has ended.

After their first meeting in August, when J.H. Rose defeated the Red Wolves in four sets, the Rampants spent the whole season ranked #1 in the 3A East Region while Cedar Ridge was #2. As both teams disposed of one conference opponent after another, almost always in straight sets, it seemed destined that they would collide in the Eastern Regional Championship match.

On Tuesday night, the inevitable battle finally took place, but it was anticlimactic.

The Rampants (28-1) rolled to a 3-0 win over the Red Wolves in front of a crowded gymnasium at Rose High on scores of 25-17, 25-20 and 25-17. J.H. Rose will face North Iredell for the 3A State Championship on Saturday at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh.

Going into Tuesday, the theme around Cedar Ridge circles was redemption after the August loss to the Rampants. Red Wolves coach Fiona Cunningham wasn’t on the sidelines for the initial matchup because of illness. Cedar Ridge had beaten the Rampants in three sets last November to win the Eastern Regional championship, which led to expectations around Red Wolves Gymnasium that the defending 3A State Champions would rise again with another championship on the line.

Instead, the Red Wolves turned in a disjointed, rhythmless performance that was even more lopsided than last summer’s season-opener. The loss ended Cedar Ridge’s 25-game winning streak. Rose will go into the state championship match on a 66-set winning streak, having won 22 straight.

“I think that Rose showed up and played a better game today,” Cunningham said. “They absolutely deserved the win today and they played great. Their confidence was the difference in the match. They felt like it was theirs to take. We played like we were trying not to lose.”

The Rampants superior size wrecked havoc on the Red Wolves attackers. Powerful strokes by Red Wolf seniors Cameron Lloyd and Melissa Benkowitz that ordinarily would have fallen to the hardwood were dug up by Rose’s defensive corps of libero Forbes Hall, Riley Cutler and Anna Bayes. After Lloyd notched the first point of the match, the Rampants reeled off four in a row. Rose outscored Cedar Ridge 14-5 on service points in the opening set. Cedar Ridge’s only rally in the opening frame came off consecutive kills by Lloyd and Anaya Carter, which only narrowed the deficit to 23-16. Rampants middle blocker Helen Wilford, who has committed to Bowling Green, spiked home a kill to end the brief run.

In the second set, Cedar Ridge jumped out to its largest lead of the match at 4-1 behind an early block from Addie Reid, a kill from Lloyd and an ace from Julie Altieri. The Rampants quickly erased the early dry spell with a 6-1 spree behind kills from Anna Bayes and Amelia Taft. Rose would widen the advantage to 19-12 and eventually take the set behind a spike from Taft, who has committed to play beach volleyball at LSU.

At this point, the only way for Cedar Ridge to win would be to take a five-set victory, something they haven’t done since October 1, 2019. Rose dashed what little hopes remained immediately with a 6-1 spurt to start the third set, keyed by two aces from Taft. The Rose lead grew to 18-10 and they claimed match point on a center line violation.

Several of the Cedar Ridge seniors, many of whom grew up playing together in White Cross when they were in elementary school, were in tears in the postgame huddle. Some remained inconsolable as fans left the gymnasium.

“I told the girls that one game doesn’t determine your season,” Cunningham said. “One game doesn’t determine your careers. They have changed this program forever and we will reap the benefits that these seniors have given us for years to come in how they’ve changed Hillsborough volleyball.”

During the pandemic year of 2020-2021, Cedar Ridge won the first of its seven championships when they captured the Big 8 Regular Season title with an undefeated league mark. They lost to D.H. Conley in front of a limited crowd (due to COVID-19) in four sets in Greenville in the 3A State Playoffs. Six months later, after Conley won the 3A State Championship, the Red Wolves returned to Greenville and swept the Vikings, the first sign that something special was brewing.

Last November, Cedar Ridge took the pregame walk of champions under the spotlight at Reynolds Coliseum in its state championship match against North Iredell. They basked in the glory of starting introductions in a darkened arena, jumped off the bench when an improbable dig by Young somehow fell to the other end of the floor in the fourth set, then mobbed together in a pileup after Lloyd scored match point to deliver the first female team state championship in Cedar Ridge history.

In August, with all of their rotation players back, plus the addition of freshman Claire Hargett, there was no reason to think Cedar Ridge couldn’t experience it again.

The hardest part of repeating is running into a team that may be just a bit healthier and bigger at the right time. How many other 3A teams could say they were truly better than Cedar Ridge?

In 2022, there was one. There was only one.

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is senior middle blocker Cameron Lanier. Through the course of her four years at Cedar Ridge, Lanier is just the second player in school history to reach 500 career kills. She actually surpassed the mark last year during the 3A State Championship match when the Red Wolves defeated North Iredell at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh. The funny thing is that volleyball wasn’t Lanier’s first choice of sport when she was growing up. In her adolescent years, Lanier was a softball player. Once she moved to the hardwood, she adapted quickly. Lanier was a starter during her freshman year at Cedar Ridge. Since then, she has won seven championships, including three conference regular season championships, two conference tournaments and a regional title, along with the state championship. Earlier this year, Lanier announced she would attend Elon University to play volleyball. She will go down as a vital member of the volleyball class of 2023, which has a career-record of 83-10 as of now. In her career, she has 623 kills and has won eleven state playoff matches. On Tuesday night, Cedar Ridge will travel to Greenville to face J.H. Rose for the 3A Eastern Regional Championship.

Over the last four years, the senior class of the Cedar Ridge volleyball team has scored 3,714 points at home.

It would have been more if they had played more than three home games during the pandemic year of 2020-2021.

While Saturday’s 3-0 win over Wilson Hunt (23-5) in the 3A NCHSAA State Quarterfinals will go down as Cedar Ridge’s 24th sweep in 25 wins, it was also the seniors’ final win inside Red Wolves Gymnasium. In a year where suspense has yielded to dominance, the final five points ever scored by the Cedar Ridge seniors at home are emblematic of the excellence and mental toughness that has become their hallmark.

Ahead by two sets against Wilson Hunt, the Warriors largely controlled play in the third frame behind the play of junior Gracelynn Wolzen and senior Alex Williams, who surpassed 1,000 career kills in her final game.

The Warriors, who led 17-12 at one point in the third set, were only two points from the set after a kill from senior Kayla Haley, who injured her knee earlier in the match and couldn’t even stand during team huddles.

With Cedar Ridge (25-1) trailing 23-20, the Red Wolves seniors took their final bow in Hillsborough and left a mark that will live forever.

It started when Cameron Lloyd, who finished with 13 kills, spiked home a cross-court pass from junior Rachel Alverson.

Cedar Ridge coach Fiona Cunningham immediately put in senior Julie Altieri, who has made aces and assists her trademark since she was a freshman on the varsity. Isolating on Hunt libero Lanier Johnson, Altieri fired a line drive that skipped off Johnson’s fists and into the front row of bleachers, propelling the Red Wolves student section into hysteria.

After a timeout, Altieri aimed at Johnson again, who ducked her head on what was, to the truest sense of the term, a headhunter. The ball sailed over Johnson’s back and landed firmly in the upper left corner for another ace to tie the set.

Of course, the storybook way for the senior class to close out its last home game would be for the school’s all-time assist leader to set up the school’s all-time kills leader. Which is exactly what happened on the final two points.

After Johnson made a dig on Lloyd’s first attack, senior Melissa Benkowitz bumped it to Altieri. Lloyd took the pass and opted for a soft tap that was briefly kept alive by middle blocker Audrey Earp, but quickly fell to the floor.

Altieri set the Fike defense off balance on match point when her serve had to be chased down by setter Ashton Frazier. After Addie Reid got the dig, it was Altieri to Lloyd one final time inside Red Wolves Gymnasium.

The smooth swing sent the ball crashing to the floor between three outstretched fists of Hunt players who all dove in vain. Really, it looked no different than hundreds of points before it which Altieri had set up for Lloyd. The only thing special about it was it’s the last time it will happen in Hillsborough.

“Cameron really stepped up when we needed her in that third set,” Cunningham said. “She was really a consistent force for us.”

Hunt, who went undefeated in the Quad County Conference, quickly fell behind in the first set due to Cedar Ridge’s serving. Altieri and Benkowitz each recorded aces during Cedar Ridge’s 9-4 run to open the match. After the Warriors closed the gap to 10-7, a block by Reid triggered a 9-3 spurt that put the Red Wolves in control of the set. Lloyd had three kills during the run. Cameron Lanier, who finished with eight kills, earned set point off an assist from Alverson.

The second set was even at 8-8 before the Red Wolves went on another of its patented sprees. This time it was a 10-2 run that was triggered by a thunderous kill by Lanier. Senior libero Grace Young recorded three straight aces to build the Red Wolves’ advantage to 22-12. Alverson had a quick kill, her only one of the day, to put the Red Wolves ahead two sets.

Cedar Ridge recorded 13 aces, including four by Benkowitz. Altieri and Young each had three. Alverson finished with eight assists.

Now Cedar Ridge will venture back to where its 2022 journey started. They will face J.H. Rose in Greenville for the Eastern Regional Championship on Tuesday night. Last November, the Red Wolves swept the Rampants to win the regional championship in Hillsborough.

On August 18, in the Red Wolves’ season-opener, the Rampants got revenge in a 3-1 victory in Greenville. It’s Cedar Ridge’s only loss of the season. They’ve lost just one set since then.

J.H. Rose, the champions of the 4A/3A Big East Conference and the #1 East seed, has won 30 in a row at home.

Cunningham, who was sick the night of the August matchup against the Rampants, isn’t expecting another sweep by anybody on Tuesday night.

“It’s going to be about who is more calm, cool and collected,” Cunningham said. “Both teams are phenomenal. Both teams are gonna play their absolute best that day and I can promise it’s going to be more than three sets one way or the other. Neither team has much experience this year going to sets four and five. So it’s going to be a lot about who can stay composed and who can keep pushing through to the end.”

It was the 45th and final home game for the Cedar Ridge volleyball team’s class of 2024 on Saturday afternoon. They made it an afternoon worth remembering as the Red Wolves defeated Wilson Hunt 3-0 on scores of 25-15, 25-15 and 25-23 in the state quarterfinals. The Cedar Ridge senior class end their careers with a record of 42-3 inside Red Wolves Gymnasium, winning its last 28 home matches. With the Red Wolves trailing 23-21, senior setter Julie Altieri stepped back and delivered two straight aces to even the match. Altieri fed senior Cameron Lloyd for the final two points of the match. Lloyd finished with 13 kills, two assists and one ace in her final match in Hillsborough. Altieri, who is nearing over 2,000 assists for her career, came away with 23 assists and three aces. The Red Wolves have won 25 matches in a row. The senior class has a career record of 83-10. On Tuesday night, the Red Wolves will journey to Greenville to continue the season where it starter—against J.H. Rose. The Rampants are the only team to beat the Red Wolves this season. It was will be for the 3A Eastern Regional Championship. The two teams met for the East Region championship last year, with Cedar Ridge coming away with a 3-1 victory.