ROCKINGHAM — This Thursday, the Richmond Senior High School girls’ tennis team made a late push but lost by a single point.
The visiting Southern Lee High School beat the Lady Raiders 5–4 in their second Sandhills Athletic Conference game at home this week.
There were six singles matches, and Richmond won two of them. They then won two more matches in doubles.
“It was a really close game today, and we just couldn’t finish it,” head coach Jessica Covington said. “We’ve had trouble beating Southern Lee in the past, but today we showed that we can beat them.”
“Going into doubles knowing we need to win all three matches to get the team win can be hard,” she said. “The girls had a great attitude and worked very hard to finish the comeback.”
No. 2 junior Jentry Denson and No. 3 senior Madison Grimes helped the Lady Raiders win their first two games.
He was up 4-0 on Logan Hickman in the No. 2 singles match before it was called a forfeit. Hickman left the game because he was hurt.
Grimes and Brooke Burris played back and forth in the No. 3 singles match. Grimes finished off the 8-6 win by holding on late.
No. 1 senior Hanna Smith lost her singles match, as did No. 4 junior Colbie Covington, No. 5 senior Kenleigh Parker, and No. 6 senior Ava Thompson.
Sophia Gonzalez beat Smith 8-1, Covington lost a close match to Quillen Petrarca 8-6, Zophia Pogorzelska beat Parker 8-2, and Gina DeCerbo beat Thompson 8-3.
Richmond won the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles matches, even though they needed to win all three to win the set.
Since the order changed not long ago, No. 2 Denson and Grimes did well together to beat Burris and Petrarca 8-3.
Parker and Thompson, ranked third, beat Pogorzelska and DeCerbo 9–7. They have played doubles together all season and are friends.
The top doubles team for the Lady Raiders, Smith and Covington, almost won all three matches, but lost 8–6 in a close match.
Tuesday is the last day of regular season conference play for the Lady Raiders (2-3, 2-3 SAC). They will be at home. The singles matches at Rockingham High School will begin at 4 p.m. on the trip from Pinecrest High School.