ROCKINGHAM — Back on the court Monday for the second time this spring, the Richmond Senior High School tennis team showed head coach Patrick Hope several improvements from last Thursday’s opener.
Completing the second half of a home-and-home with non-conference opponent Union Pines High School, the Raiders fell by a final score of 9-0. But Hope wasn’t discouraged by the score, noting “the final numbers don’t always tell the whole story.”
“When people look at the score, they see we lost 9-0, and think our guys didn’t do anything,” Hope commented after the home opener. “But a lot of our points were earned by going to the deuce a lot more. The guys were able to be able to hit with Union Pines, which is one of the best 3A programs in the state. There was a lot of improvement today.”
In 2018, the Vikings (2-0) finished second out of 13 teams in the Mid-East 3A Regional tournament, and facing an experienced squad is something Hope noted will “make our guys more consistent throughout the season.”
Monday’s lineup was the same as last week’s first meeting, with Richmond’s No. 1 Kevin Campos and No. 2 Bradford Pittman squaring off against Shawn Rutkofse and Blake Deaton. For the second straight match, Campos fell to Rutkofse 8-0, but Pittman managed to pick up a point from Thursday’s meeting, finishing 8-1.
Singles newcomers No. 3 Caleb Brewer and No. 4 Mason Bailey faced Jake Moubry and Kai Blakely, and lost 8-1 and 8-0, respectively. Brewer, like Pittman, managed to improve his score from the first go-around.
Rounding out the singles competition were No. 5 Karym Ojeda and No. 6 Alex Yates, who both lost by a final score of 8-0 to Davis Moubry and Luke O’Donnell.
Doubles action yielded the same results as Thursday, but also saw some improvement on the score sheet. The No. 1 team of Campos and Pittman fell to Rutkofse and Deaton, and the No. 2 pairing of Brewer and Mason lost to Jake Moubry and Blakely. Both groups were blanked in the first meeting, but each recorded two points Monday, dropping their matches 8-2.
The No. 3 group of Ojeda and Yates lost to Davis Moubry and O’Donnell 8-0.
“I thought the doubles teams really improved, considering we haven’t worked a lot with that yet this year,” Hope noted. “I’m starting to see a lot of chemistry in our No. 1 and No. 2 groups between Kevin and Bradford, and Caleb and Mason.”
The head coach expressed his pleasure with the four players starting to “communicate more on the court” and said the two points scored is “a big deal” for their confidence moving forward. He also expects Ojeda and Yates to “keep working” to get better.
The Raiders (0-2) will open Sandhills Athletic Conference play on Tuesday at Purnell Swett High School (4 p.m.), before closing the week at Pinecrest High School on Friday (4 p.m.)
“We don’t know what Purnell Swett has, but having played a tough team like Union Pines, that’s going to give us a lot more confidence (Tuesday),” Hope concluded. “We go in with some experience, and should be able to raise our game against Pinecrest on Friday.”
