ROCKINGHAM — Icing the regular season with a doubleheader sweep over Seventy-First High School, the Lady Raider tennis team clinched second place in the Sandhills Athletic Conference standings on Thursday.
On senior night, Richmond and head coach Neely Herndon rolled past the Lady Falcons by scores of 9-0 and 9-0.
Prior to the team’s second straight doubleheader win, and ninth consecutive match victory, the Lady Raiders honored their three seniors — Kearston Bruce, Kaylee Parker and Natalie Pattan.
Herndon sent her top six players in for the first match’s singles competition, starting with No. 1 Bruce, who defeated Kaylee Ford 8-0.
No. 2 freshman Katie Way also won 8-0 over Olivia Lee, and No. 3 Parker shut out Ronia Guyton-McRae 8-0.
Also blanking their respective opponents 8-0 were No. 5 freshman Neely Turner over Jamya Davis and No. 6 Pattan against Francis Gist.
No. 4 junior Paris Almon also picked up a singles win to complete the sweep, seeing her hand Princess Ross an 8-1 loss.
The two teams only played doubles matches in the top half of the doubleheader, with the Lady Raiders taking all three.
Mixing up her lineup, Herndon played junior Kirsten McDonald and sophomore Addison Massey in the No. 1 doubles pairing, who defeated Ford and Lee 8-2.
In the No. 2 contest, Parker and Kyleigh Morrison teamed up to defeat Ross and Guyton-McRae 8-2, and junior Mariah Waddell and sophomore Maren Carter beat Davis and Gist 8-3 in the No. 3 doubles match.
The Lady Raiders took all six of the singles matches in the closing half of the doubleheader. No. 1 Bruce earned another 8-0 win over Ford.
Parker and Turner got moved up in the lineup, playing in the No. 2 and No. 3 matches, respectively. Parker cruised past Lee 8-1, while Turner also picked up her second singles win with an 8-0 victory over Guyton-McRae.
McDonald slid into the No. 4 match and edged Ross 8-4, while No. 5 Pattan blanked Davis 8-0. Rounding out the afternoon was No. 6 sophomore Rachel Martin, who collected an 8-2 win over Gist.
Seventy-First forfeited the final three doubles matches to give the Lady Raiders their second 9-0 victory of the day.
Finishing the regular season with an 11-3 SAC record, the second-place Lady Raiders now await the NCHSAA’s release of the regional tournament seedings. The Richmond Observer will report on that when it’s made available.
