ROCKINGHAM — After the Richmond Senior High School girls’ tennis team celebrated its two seniors during senior day Wednesday, the whole team had something to celebrate after its conference match.
The Lady Raiders hosted Hoke County High School and played the Lady Bucks for the first time this season.
Proving not to be a problem, the Lady Raiders defeated their familiar Mid-South Conference foe 7-2. It was the team’s second win in as many matches this week.
Richmond secured the match victory by winning five of the six singles matches. For good measure, the Lady Raiders won two of the three doubles contests.
“This was a really big day for our program,” Covington said. “It’s always special to recognize our seniors and Jentry and Skyler have been great players the past several years. We will cherish the time we have left with them this season, but will miss them next year.
“As a team, we really played great today,” she continued. “Sometimes the excitement of senior night can be a distraction, but the girls were focused and stuck to the game plan. Being able to win the match in singles is always a good feeling and it allowed us to have a little more fun during doubles.”
Winning singles matches were No. 1 junior Colbie Covington, No. 3 Denson, No. 4 sophomore Sydney Barnes, No. 5 sophomore Erin Drumwright and No. 6 junior Angelina Culbreth.
Colbie Covington defeated Laura Pena 7-5, 6-1 in her best-of-three set match. Denson was in control of her singles match against Hera Lin, rolling to a 6-3, 6-2 win.
Barnes had the best score of the day, earning a clean sweep of Sahara Henderson with matching scores of 6-0, 6-0.
Drumwright was also impressive against Shannon Clark, cruising to a 6-0, 6-1 win. Capping the singles action was Culbreth, who defeated Alyssa Ledlow 6-3, 6-4.
No. 2 freshman Molly Covington nearly won her singles match, but fell 8-10 in a tiebreaker with Tino Lin.
Colbie Covington and Denson teamed up to earn an 8-6 victory over Tino and Hera Lin to start doubles in the No. 1 match. Richmond’s other doubles win came from Collins and Drumwright in the No. 3 pairing, an 8-5 victory over Henderson and Clark.
Molly Covington and Barnes lost 4-8 in the No. 2 doubles match to Pena and Ledlow.
The Lady Raiders (4-6, 3-4 MSC) close their three-match week Thursday at Jack Britt High School. Going for the season sweep, action will begin at 4 p.m.
Sports editor's note: This article was updated at 5:03 p.m. Oct. 2 to correct doubles partners.
