Prep notebook: Sanderson tennis player wins NCHSAA player of the week award

Carrboro High School will forfeit Friday’s Mid-State 2A Conference football game with Bartlett Yancey, the school’s athletics director announced Wednesday night.

Carrboro (now 0-8, 0-2) had been scheduled to host Bartlett Yancey (4-3, 1-1)..

“The decision was based on the safety and the well being of our athletes,” Carrboro athletics director April Ross wrote in an email. “We will not make up the game at this time. Our plan is to continue football on Oct. 23 versus Graham based on a safe number of participants who can play.”

Carrboro football head coach Melvin Griffin said his team had been able to compete until it lost 50-0 Oct. 9 at Burlington Cummings.

“We played against Cummings with 19 players and lost three to injury,” Griffin said. “We have only 16 athletes for practice this week.”

Griffin said four players were expected to return to practice next week, giving the Jaguars 20 healthy players to take the field Oct. 23 at home against Graham (1-6, 0-1).

“The game with Graham is still on,” he said.

Carrboro’s decision marks the second time in less than a year that a local team has felt compelled to forfeit a football game. East Chapel Hill went 0-11 last year after citing a lack of healthy players and forfeiting three of its last four games.

The Jaguars’ forfeit will give them an eighth straight loss and extend the schools current winless streak in football to 12 games. After defeating Bartlett Yancey 32-12 last year, Carrboro lost four straight at the end of its 2014 season.

Big 8 tennis, top singles player held out: Chapel Hill’s Hailey Polsky captured the Big 8 singles championship Wednesday, defeating Northwood’s Sam Sparrow 6-1, 6-1 in the final at Orange High.

“I think I played pretty well in all of my matches,” said Polsky, who captured her first conference championship. “It got harder towards the end.”

The No. 1 singles seed never got to the tournament and thus won’t qualify for regionals or the state tournament. Chapel Hill’s Gabe Chew, 13-2 on the season, had to forfeit her quarterfinal match against Sparrow because of timing issues. Chew was required to attend a choral rehearsal that started after classes at CHHS concluded at 4 p.m., and her match started at 4:15 p.m.

Polsky, Sparrow, Peoples and Cedar Ridge’s Tess Johnson advanced to the regionals at the Burlington Tennis Center as singles players.

The doubles championship was an all-Chapel Hill affair. Sophomore Gabby Kmiec and freshman Carolina Coch defeated teammates Ellen Yu and Joy Stouffer 6-2, 6-1.

“We were playing really well today,” Kmiec said. “Hopefully that will carry over into the regionals.”

In addition to the two Chapel Hill teams, Cedar Ridge’s Leah Thompson and Maddie Allen and Northwood’s Allyson Blake and Evie Hoffman also qualified for regionals.

Garner HOF: Garner High School will introduce its five athletics hall of fame inductees on Oct. 30 at halftime of a home football game against West Johnston. The inductees are educator and administrator Wayne Bare, East Carolina baseball standout Johnny Beck (class of 1990), multi-sport athlete B.A. Corbett (1941), school softball strikeout leader Lauren Pleasants (2003) and contributor Greg Pleasants (1987).

Clayton wins GNRC boys soccer: Clayton’s boys soccer team got a game-winning goal from Brandon Sainz to defeat Garner 2-1 Wednesday and clinch the Greater Neuse River Conference title. The Comets (13-4, 10-1) have one more title to win, playing Corinth Holders on Oct. 22 for Johnston County’s JUSA Cup title.

NCHSAA award: Sanderson freshman Sibel Tanik was an NCHSAA Performance of the Week award winner for her victory last week in a regular-season match against Wakefield’s Susanne Boyden, a two-time state singles champion.

NCHSAA day: The NCHSAA will recognize Wells Fargo State Cup winners for the 2014-15 academic year and the newest NCHSAA hall of fame members at halftime of Saturday’s UNC football game.

Carrboro (2A), Cardinal Gibbons (3A) won Wells Fargo Cups for the best postseason finishes across all sports, while Apex and Green Hope tied for the 4A title. Hall of famers include Chapel Hill girls basketball Sherry Norris, the state’s all-time leader in volleyball wins and a state champion coach in both sports.

W.E. Warnock, D. Clay Best, Michael Held and Jeff Hamlin contributed.

This story was originally published October 15, 2015 at 5:10 PM with the headline "Prep notebook: Sanderson tennis player wins NCHSAA player of the week award."