ROCKINGHAM — A season-long winning streak continued Thursday for the Richmond Senior High School boys’ tennis team.
Notching their third win in a row, and third victory in two days, the Raiders evened their regular-season series with Lee County High School.
Bouncing back from a loss against the Yellow Jackets last month, Richmond cruised to a 6-3 win.
The Raiders won four singles matches and two doubles contests a day after shutting out Southern Lee High School in both ends of a doubleheader.
“Today was another great match for us,” head coach Jessica Covington said. “It’s always good when we can regroup and defeat a team that we lost to earlier in the season. It shows the guys are continuing to get better and I’m so proud of them.”
Competing in pro-eight sets, all of the matches were close in score. Richmond’s largest margin of victory came from No. 4 senior Billy West. He defeated Jayden Gibbs 8-5.
The Raiders’ other three singles victories all went to an extra set and resulted in a trio of 9-7 wins.
No. 2 senior Matthew Leggett and No. 6 sophomore Ben Lutz each redeemed an earlier loss to their respective opponent. Leggett defeated Finley Benton and Lutz outlasted Edgar Valenzuela.
In the No. 5 match, senior Jordan McCormick erased deficits of 3-0 and 5-2 to defeat Carter Osbourne by two sets.
No. 1 senior Jordan Jacobs and No. 3 senior Gavin Applewhite nearly helped Richmond complete the singles sweep, but lost by scores of 6-8 and 5-8.
Needing to take just one of the three doubles matches to secure the match win, the Raiders won the Nos. 1 and 3 pairings.
In the top-seeded contest, Jacobs and Leggett beat Benton and Gibbs 8-4. McCormick and Lutz handed Osbourne and Valenzuela an 8-6 defeat.
The Raiders (3-4, 3-4 Sandhills Athletic Conference) close out the week Friday at Union Pines High School. Singles action will begin at 4 p.m.
