Matt Harrelson
ROCKINGHAM - Although students haven't returned to the classroom yet, the Lady Raiders tennis team returned to the court on Wednesday for its first matchup of the year against non-conference foe Pine Forest High School.
During the first round of the NCHSAA 4A playoffs last fall, Richmond eliminated Pine Forest for the program's first postseason win. But that wasn't the case Wednesday, as the Lady Trojans got redemption with a 7-2 victory.
After losing a few girls to graduation from last year's team, third-year head coach Mike Way said Wednesday that he thinks his team will eventually be okay.
"Even though our team is older, we are still relatively inexperienced," Way said. "With some matches under our belt, I think we can be competitive in the conference."
In the meantime, singles action saw the Lady Raiders collect their only two victories of the afternoon. No. 2 player Greyson Way defeated Jazmin Leath 10-3, while No. 4 player Taylor Parrish finished off Kayla Schmidt 11-9. No. 1 Raider Jayana Nicholson was blanked 10-0 by Pine Forest's No. 1 Kelcie Farmer. Other Richmond defeats were a bit closer with No. 3 Emily Parsons losing 10-7 to Midorie Jean-Baptiste, Emily Buie falling 10-5 to Bella Fish and Shadia Gonzalez beating No. 6 player Morgan Hooks 10-4 in singles matches.
With the inexperience on the Lady Raiders' side, Way also chalked up the defeat to Pine Forest, quite frankly, being a very good team.
"They are more experienced than us, and they have kids that only play tennis," he said. "I think if we were to play them later in the year we could make the score a little closer."
Way added that Pine Forest High School also beat Richmond last year to open the season, as well.
Doubles action, unfortunately, didn't fare better for the Lady Raiders as the No. 1 team of Nicholson and Way were put down by Farmer and Jean-Baptiste 8-4, while Parsons and Parrish lost a close match 8-6 to Leath and Fish. The No. 3 doubles team of Buie and Hooks also lost 8-3 to Schmidt and Gonzalez, respectively.
When posed the question of what Way expects from his number one and two players Nicholson and Way, the head coach said he expects them to provide leadership to go along with the experience they picked up from las year.
"I anticipate that they will be competitive in most all of their matches," he said. "We have to do a good job of competing at the top. They are experienced in doubles and singles at this point so they should be the backbones of our team. I may have to split them up some in doubles so that we can use that experience on more than just one court."
The Lady Raiders will return to their home court at Richmond Senior High School at 4 p.m. on Thursday when they take on the Lady Eagles of East Montgomery High School.
