ROCKINGHAM — Ending its regular season Thursday, the Richmond Senior High School boys’ tennis team picked up a pair of wins.
Hosting Scotland High School, the Raiders won both ends of a doubleheader. Richmond both contests 9-0.
Benefiting from the fact that Scotland did not have a full roster, the Raiders earned automatic wins via forfeits in the No. 6 singles contest and the No. 3 doubles match.
Scotland also forfeited the entire second match without playing to give Richmond its final victory of the regular season.
“This was a great way to close the week and our regular season,” head coach Jessica Covington said. “We had regional qualifiers on Tuesday and today we shut out one of our biggest rivals. I’m proud of all the guys for finishing the season strong.”
Richmond and Scotland played all five singles matches as best-of-three sets. Reaching their wins the fastest were Leggett and Applewhite.
Leggett defeated Dev Patel 6-0, 6-1 in the No. 2 matchup, while Applewhite cruised past Tri Duong 6-1, 6-0.
In his match with Owen McCrae, McCormick notched a win with scores of 6-1 and 6-1. Battling in the top-seeded match, No. 1 Jacobs handed Jackson Hernandez a loss with a final tally of 6-1, 6-2.
West and Eliza Dockery had the closest match between the singles competitions. Winning the first set 6-1, West fell in the second set 5-7. Digging in, West completed what he started with a 10-8 victory in the tiebreaker.
Covington decided to switch up the team’s using doubles pairings in the Nos. 1 and 2 matches.
Playing as partners in the top match were Jacobs and Applewhite, who easily Hernandez and Patel 8-1. Leggett and West were also big winners, taking down Duong and Dockery 8-2.
The Raiders finished the regular season with a 5-5 overall mark, with a matching record against SAC teams.
Richmond will now await the NCHSAA 4A Mideast Regional tournament in early may. Jacobs and Leggett qualified for the event as a doubles team.
