ROCKINGHAM — Still searching for its first team win of the season, the Richmond Senior High School boys’ tennis team lost Tuesday, although the Raiders made things interesting.
Returning to action for the first time in two weeks due to weather and other postponements, the Raiders and head coach Jessica Covington hosted current conference leader Pinecrest High School.
The Sandhills Athletic Conference match didn’t go in Richmond’s favor, which resulted in a 6-3 loss to the Patriots.
However, the Raiders were able to pick up a singles win and two doubles wins, getting them on the board.
“Any time we play Pinecrest, we know it’s going to be a tough match,” Covington said. “Today our guys showed up and really played some of their best tennis this season. We had to knock some rust off since we haven’t played in a while, but I’m so proud of everyone for their efforts.”
Earning the singles win was No. 2 senior Matthew Leggett, who also contributed to the No. 1 doubles win with senior teammate Jordan Jacobs. Combining for the other win in the No. 2 doubles match were seniors Gavin Applewhite and Billy West.
“Matthew controlled the tempo of his match the whole time and it was obvious that he really wanted to win,” Covington shared. “That momentum carried over into the doubles match, which was the result of Matthew and Jordan continuing to play really well as partners.
“Gavin and Billy got on the board with a win and that was exciting for them. Any time we can earn wins over a quality opponent is a good thing for our program.”
Leggett took down Jake Sumner by scores of 7-5 and 6-2 for his first singles victory of the season.
No. 3 Applewhite and No. 4 West both managed to win some games in their singles matches but lost by matching scores of 3-6, 1-6 to Jack Hage and Preston House, respectively.
Richmond’s other three singles players — No. 1 Jacobs, No. 5 senior Jordan McCormick and No. 6 sophomore Ben Lutz — each lost by scores of 0-6, 0-6.
Facing House and Sawyer Dennis in the top-seeded doubles match, Jacobs and Leggett earned their second combined win of the season. They won by a final score of 8-5.
Applewhite and West faced Hayden Johnson and James Bedwell in the No. 2 pairing and rolled to an 8-1 victory, their first doubles win of the spring.
McCormick and Lutz played as the No. 3 duo and lost a close tiebreaker 8-8, 7-4 to Jethro Jawanda and Carter Tung.
