While most in RISD turned off their alarms for Fair Day, district athletes, coaches and trainers were back to the grind before sunrise, leading into an impressive week of wins for RISD.
On Oct. 11, the Richardson Eagles volleyball team swept Irving and the Pearce Mustangs swept Irving Nimitz in district play. Hailey Ashcraft, competed against Nimitz just hours after placing seventh in the individual golf match in Abilene. The Pearce girls golf team finished second overall. Hailey is one of dozens of RISD’s dual-sport athletes who often showcase their discipline and skill by competing in multiple sports in a single day. Way to go Hailey! #RISDBelieves
Also in volleyball, the Berkner Lady Rams defeated Irving MacArthur 3-1, closing out a dominant win for RISD over all three Irving schools. The Lake Highlands Lady Wildcats narrowly fell short to the No. 1 ranked team in district, Highland Park, but gave the Scots their toughest competition yet, including winning the first set, which is the only set Highland Park lost in district this year.
With a restful regroup for everyone on Wednesday, RISD buses loaded up early Thursday morning for the cross country district championship meet in McKinney, and again, the wins piled up. The Mustangs, Eagles and Wildcats all advanced to regionals and will make their way to Lubbock on Oct. 24.
Also Thursday, three of the district’s varsity tennis teams earned the title of bi-district champions, closing out a monumental fall season for RISD tennis. Congratulations to all the players, coaches, families and fans on this well-earned title.
On Friday night, all four RISD volleyball teams went head-to-head.
Richardson battled Berkner on Senior Night, and the Eagles and their fans celebrated with a fairly quick 3-0 sweep. RHS senior Camryn Dyke – who was also recently named a National Merit Semifinalist in the classroom – made her second appearance on the court this week after recovering from a major ACL injury, and earned player of the match.
Heading over to the Dallas side of RISD, the intense match between the Wildcats and Mustangs had the Wildcats winning game one and leading early in game two until Pearce Coach Jennifer Nance called time out. The Mustangs turned it around immediately and rallied back to win games two, three and four.
The four RISD volleyball teams are all in the hunt for the playoff with Pearce in second, LHHS in third, RHS in fourth and Berkner in fifth with three matches left on the 2022-23 regular season schedule.
As the volleyball matches wrapped up, across the parking lot began Friday Night Lights between Richardson and Lake Highlands in the Wildcats’ homecoming game that saw the 1981 Lake Highlands state championship team honored at halftime.
Richardson opted to receive the opening kickoff and held the ball for nearly eight minutes before kicking a field goal to take an early 3-0 lead. However, Lake Highlands returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown and cruised to a 45-10 win over the Eagles led by running back Deonte Dean’s 181 total yards and four touchdowns.
Congratulations to senior All American wrestler Fernanda Lopez for being named Homecoming Queen alongside LHHS football player Carson Klein as Homecoming King.
To conclude the night we head back across I-75 to watch the Berkner Rams battle it out against the Jesuit Rangers, hoping for a possible district upset. Ultimately the Rangers walked away with the 58-31 win over the Rams, but the energy and tenacity Berkner brought is definitely noteworthy.
With the remaining teams the Rams have left to play this season, the number four playoff spot is well within reach as the Rams just need to beat Irving Nimitz and Irving MacArthur in the final two weeks of the season and get some help from Lake Highlands against Pearce Thursday, Oct. 20, in the CW33 game of the week.
That’s right, the Lake Highlands-Pearce game on Thursday will be shown live on CW33. #RISDGreatness
