CAMERON — Back on the court for the first time in a week, the Richmond Senior High School boys tennis team lost its second match to begin the new campaign.
The Raiders traveled to Union Pines High School and lost 8-1 in the Sandhills Athletic Conference matchup.
Winning his first career match, and Richmond’s first singles victory of the season, was No. 2 junior Matthew Leggett.
“The individual scores were much closer than the final score indicates,” head coach Jessica Covington said. “We played another tough team today and I’m proud of the guys for sticking with it. It’s exciting for Matthew to get his first win.
“We just have to keep improving and learn how to finish matches,” she added. “We had three tiebreakers today and were so close to getting all three. We are making progress in the right direction.”
Leggett squared off against Joey Tortora in the No. 2 singles matchup and came out on the positive end of the tiebreaker. He won by scores of 6-4, 6-6 and 10-8.
Richmond’s other two tiebreakers were played by No. 1 junior Jordan Jacobs and No. 6 freshman Ben Lutz.
Jacobs rallied against Lane McPherson after losing the first game 2-6 to tie it up with a 6-4 win. In the extra game, Jacobs was edged 8-10.
Lutz opened his match against Dominic Roett with a 6-4 win and dropped the second game 5-7. The tiebreaker ended in a 7-10 loss.
Richmond’s other three singles players — No. 3 senior Brent Humann, No. 4 senior Will Whitley and No. 5 junior Gavin Applewhite — were all swept in straight sets.
Humann fell to Tucker Lloyd 2-6, 4-6, Whitely came up short 3-6,0-6 against Jace McPherson and Applewhite lost 1-6, 2-6 to Cam Deibel.
Richmond also lost its three doubles matches. The No. 1 pairing of Jacobs and Leggett were blanked 0-8 by Lane McPherson and Tortora.
In the No. 2 match, Humann and Whitley lost 2-8. The No. 3 duo of Applewhite and junior Noah Gil came close to a victory, but were edged 6-8.
The Raiders (0-2, 0-2 SAC) will play a home match Wednesday against Lee County High School. Singles matches will start at 4 p.m.
