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Cave Spring High School scored four runs 🏃‍♂️ in the top of the first inning and then Carroll County answered back with three in the bottom of first inning.

End of 1st – Knights 4, Cavaliers 3

End of 2nd – Knights 4, Cavaliers 3

End of 3rd – Knights 4, Cavaliers 3

More to follow…

Carroll County scores two runs 🏃‍♂️ on wild pitches, now leads 5-4 in the top of the fifth inning!!!!

They got 3 in the top of the 5th, Cave up 7-5 now, mid 5th

Colby Shaw with a 2 run single in his first varsity at at bat to tie it, Berrier with a 2 run double. Cavs lead 9-7 after 5!!!!

Cave got a run back in top of 6th, now 9-8 mid 6th

Same score after 6

Carroll wins 9-8!!!!!

Hollins – Both of the Cavalier #1 seeded tennis players, Erika McKenzie and Ethan Richardson have plenty of life awaiting them now that they have graduated 🎓 from Carroll County High School. McKenzie is on her way to James Madison University and Richardson is headed to Bluefield University as Students.

The two players had one final opportunity to perform as Student Athletes in the Regional tournament Monday at Hollins University.

McKenzie, seeded seventh in the eight player field matched up with #2 seed Grayson Woodall of Abingdon High School. McKenzie fell in straight sets against the highly skilled Woodall and then the Falcon did the same to her next opponent to reach the finals, set for tomorrow morning.

Richardson played in the #3-#6 match against Rian Patel of Cave Spring High School. The pair had just competed against each other on Friday afternoon during the team competition, with Patel winning that match.

Patel prevailed in straight sets once again, this time by a score of 6-1, 6-3 and then went on to advance to the Championship match on Tuesday morning.

With hours to wait for the start of their doubles match, both of the ultra competitive Seniors reflected on their final Singles match, alongside their partners, Khloe Akers and Maverick Baker.

McKenzie and Akers were first out and were facing a duo from Staunton River. It’s worth noting that the morning had started at 7:45 when everyone departed from The Hill and McKenzie had performed all weekend as a dancer.

The first set did not go as planned as the Lady Cavaliers struggled with winning points, let alone games. But then something special happened across the entirety of what would prove to the final set. At a place in the long day that it would have been the easiest to play out the string, Carroll County pulled within 5-4. SRHS would capture the tenth and final game to close out the match, 6-4 but our Lady Cavaliers pushed right up to the final point.

Richardson and Baker struggled in their opening set against the #3 seeded duo from Magna Vista, falling by a score of 6-3. Midway through a highly competitive second set the Cavaliers found another gear ⚙ and even took the lead at 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3. The Warriors pushed things to match point at 5-4 before CCHS won two straight to make it 6-5.

Down to their final swings, Richardson and Baker now had M-V facing a winner take all third set. The Warriors pushed things to a tiebreaker by winning the next game to knot things up at 6-6.

First to seven but you have to win by two and neither team could create enough separation to win the set. Magna Vista finally walked away with a 7-6 (9-7) second set victory and therefore the match.

McKenzie and Richardson will now move in to face the challenges that await  College freshman. Akers and Baker will return next season and both figure to slide into the #1 slots for Carroll County High School.

The final stat line shows that CCHS went 0-4 on the day but know that the Cavaliers were well represented by both Coaches and all four players.

The Coaches meeting has been concluded and the biggest adjustment is that the Boys singles will now start at the same time (10:00) instead of afterwards.

Erika McKenzie will start on Court #4 and Ethan Richardson on Court #10. Both will be getting underway in a few minutes.

The courts are divided 1-3, 4-6 and 7-10.

Courts 7-10 have been declared unplayable and we will now be using courts 1-6 only.

Ethan’s opening match was one of the two delayed by the change of courts being used.

Erika’s match against the #2 seed from Abingdon just ended at 10:40 am. While there were some long volleys along the way, the match ended in straight sets.

10:50 – Ethan is warming up on Court 6 and will face the #6 seed from Cave Spring shortly.

11: 27 – Ethan is heading into his second set now, having dropped the opening one.

The definition of Doubles partners is sharing the same chair 💺.

11:45 – time to acknowledge the folks that made the trek up from Carroll County on a Monday morning. Besides the four athletes and two Coaches, we have three additional members of the Richardson family 👪. Dad, Kris ➕ Mom, Paula and Grandmother 👵 Linda. We might should count Martin McKenzie twice, once as Dad and once as Coach.

11:54 – Ethan Richardson has completed his Singles match and it concludes the opening round of Singles altogether. Both Cavaliers have finished their Singles careers.

The final score was 6-3, 6-1 in the Singles match for Richardson.

Both Carroll County doubles teams will be back on the courts shortly.

Meanwhile, inside the Gym, we find 💘 for our own Brandi Cochran Mitchell !

We just found at that the Girls will start at 1pm on Court #3!!!

1:11 – Match on…

2:06 – Girls trail 4-3 in second set. Boys early in 1st set

2:15 – Girls fall 6-4, season now over for the Lady Cavaliers 👩.

Boys dropped opening set, 6-3.

Boys leading 2nd set, 2-1.

Now trailing, 3-2.

Up, 4-3. Now 4-4, Down 5-4 at 2:52

5-5 @ 2:59, Up 6-5!

6-6, headed to Tiebreaker

3:14 – Final, Cavs drop tiebreaker 9-7…

One of the cool things about today is the fact that our Tennis 🎾 players will get to feel excitement around them while they are representing Carroll County High School.

They will get to play their sport on a College campus and because there will be eight Girls and eight Boys playing Singles, plus 16 doubles partners, there will be a minimum of 32 players present.

High School Tennis is a sport that holds a different level for all of the Regional teams. Some of the teams and players are perusing State Championships on their way to College Tennis while others are just enjoying their time on the court.

Today will center around six people for Carroll County High School.

On the Girls side, Head Coach Martin McKenzie, his daughter Erika and her doubles partner, Khloe Akers.

On the Boys side, Head Coach Christy Shupe, Ethan Richardson and his doubles partner, Maverick Baker.

The challenge today, from my perspective, is to capture the efforts of this group of folks and frame it in a manner that matches their time invested.

The brackets are seeded one through eight, with 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5 competing in the opening round. Richardson, as a #3 seed in Singles is the only one of the four Cavaliers that would be considered a favorite to earn a victory today in the single elimination event.

  The first victory came in the fact that CCHS qualified in all four categories. Each player and team finished their regular season with a winning record and they faced some Schools that take Tennis pretty seriously.

  Today will be the final stop ✋for both of our #1 players as McKenzie and Richardson both just graduated 🎓. Martin McKenzie will be wrapping up his two year stint as the Girls coach at the end of the event. Shupe was gracious enough to step up and guide the Boys side this season and her future is unknown to me at this point.

Both Akers and Baker will be back at it next season, with bigger roles to play as the top player.

Back to today, the goal isn’t to get people to flock up to Hollins University and watch the matches. It’s to have people show appreciation for the efforts that these two Adults and four Students have put forth in the name of Carroll County High School Tennis.