ROCKINGHAM — Ending the regular season Monday, the Richmond Senior High School boys tennis team finished on a high note.
Following their recognition of seniors Brent Humann and Will Whitley on senior night, the Raiders completed the season sweep of Scotland High School.
Like they did during the first meeting, the Raiders dominated singles and doubles and rolled to a 9-0 victory.
It was Richmond’s third shutout win in its last four Sandhills Athletic Conference matches, and the second time this season the Raiders blanked the Fighting Scots.
“It’s always great when we can win, but today was special because it was senior night against Scotland,” head coach Jessica Covington said. “I know it means a lot to the guys and our seniors to end the regular season this way.
“The recent run we’ve been on, and even the strong matches against Union Pines, is really encouraging as we enter the conference tournament,” she added. “We will continue to practice and try to fine-tune a few things so we’re prepared. I think we can do really well.”
In singles action, Richmond and Scotland played the best of three sets. The teams moved to a pro-eight format for doubles.
Humann and Whitley both won his respective singles matches handily. In the No. 3 match, Humann defeated Kishawn Pate 6-2, 6-2, and Whitley followed in the No. 4 contest with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Jackson Hernandez.
No. 2 junior Matthew Leggett also won in straight sets and kept his opponent off the board. Facing Eli McRae, Leggett won the first set 6-0 and took the second set 3-0 after McRae left the match due to an injury.
No. 5 junior Gavin Applewhite and No. 6 junior Noah Gil each cruised to big singles wins. Applewhite handed Tri Duong a 6-1, 6-0 loss, while Gil won by similar scores, 6-0, 6-1, over Andrew Medlock.
The closest singles match of the afternoon was between the No. 1 players from each school — junior Jordan Jacobs and Scotland’s Ricky Zhang. Jacobs won the back-and-forth affair by scores of 6-3 and 6-4.
Completing the clean sheet, Richmond’s doubles victories started with No. 1 Jacobs and Leggett defeating Zhang and McRae 8-3.
No. 2 Humann and Whitley celebrated a senior night tandem victory 8-1 against Pate and Hernandez, while the No. 3 duo of Applewhite and Gil rolled to an 8-2 win over Duong and Medlock.
No. 7 freshman Ben Lutz played an exhibition match with Tower McRae, winning 8-3.
The Raiders (5-4, 5-4 SAC) will play in the Sandhills Athletic Conference tournament Thursday at Pinecrest High School. Singles matches will start at 12 p.m.
Based on its record, Richmond should be the No. 3 seed in the tournament.
