After missing two matches earlier this season the Boiling Springs tennis team finally opened their regular season play with a 4-2 victory over Chesnee at Coach G Courts, the home courts of the Bulldogs, on Wednesday afternoon.
"It's a good win to get in the books to start the season," said Bulldogs head coach Jill Cooke. "We weren't as strong as I'd like to see us but we were down our number one player so everyone had to bump up a spot. Overall I think they done a good job though especially coming off a long layoff. It was good for the team to finally hit the court and get the first game jitters out of the way." Boiling Springs was without their normal number one seed player Madison Ball on Wednesday afternoon but had great performances from the rest of their team who all stepped up a spot to win the match against Chesnee. "Without Madison I was fairly confident we should win but I did miss having her out there today," said Cooke. "With Madison here I'm very confident in our chances because she's such a talented player." Sydney Braswell stepped up to the number one seed spot for the Bulldogs against the Eagles coming away with the victory in two sets (6-3, 6-0) over Ansley Mossburg. At number two seed the Bulldogs made a strong comeback as Emily Krechko fell in the first set before battling back to win the second set and the tiebreaker over the Eagles' Trista Gaffney (0-6, 6-3, (10-2)). In the third seed match the Bulldogs picked up their third victory of the afternoon as Kaiden Price defeated Anna K. Hayes (6-4, 6-3). With the Bulldogs ahead Chesnee battled back with victories in the fourth seed match as the Eagles' Faith Stewart defeated the Bulldogs' Victoria Leonard (6-2, 6-3) and in the fifth seed match as the Eagles Lanie Arrowood defeated Ally Hollifield (6-1, 6-1). Boiling Springs needed a victory in a doubles match to pick up the victory and got just that as their number one doubles team of Anna Lynn Faile and Lydia Sparks defeated the Eagles' Carter McClain and Kennedy Mills (6-3, 6-1) to claim the victory in the match. Cooke said that playing without their number one player in the match and having everyone play up a spot on Wednesday should benefit her team as a whole moving forward. "It's good for our players having to play up a spot as it gives them more experience as a team," said Cooke. "It's tougher on them but it reminds them to always be ready because you never know when you're going to have to be called upon to play up a spot throughout the season." Boiling Springs will return to action on Monday when they host Spartanburg Christian Academy in another out-of-region contest. In front of a playoff atmosphere type crowd, including two energetic student body crowds, the Boiling Springs volleyball team took a 2-1 victory over the home standing Landrum Cardinals. It was the second victory of the night for the Bulldogs as they also defeated Chapman 2-0 earlier in the night.
"Landrum is always a scrappy team and playing at their place is always exciting," said Bulldogs head coach Allyson Elliot. "Their fans always show up and we had a great group show up for us as well tonight on the road which just made for a great atmosphere." In the first set against the Cardinals the Bulldogs fell behind Landrum 4-0 before back-to-back kills from seniors Logan Kenny and Savannah Page cut the lead in half at 4-2. The Bulldogs still trailed 10-5 later in the match when Kenny picked up a block for a kill that started her own service run that saw the Boiling Springs tie the set at 10-10 that included back-to-back kills by Page including the tying point. Both teams exchanged points over the next couple of serves when the Bulldogs Karson Browning tied the game at 14-14 before Gracie Kilgore gave Boiling Springs their first lead of the set at 15-14 on an ace serve to start a three point service run that included a kill by Cloe Wood to put the Bulldogs ahead 17-14. Landrum was able to make a comeback to tie the set at 22-22 when the Bulldogs Cloe Wood found an empty spot on the left side of the court on the Cardinals side of the net to take a 23-22 lead, starting a run of three straight points by the Bulldogs to capture the set win 25-22. Wood also claimed the last point of the set when she picked up a spike kill that landed just inside the Landrum backline. In the second set the two teams battled back and forth as both teams were tied at 16-16 until Landrum went on a 9-3 run to finish the set, grabbing a 25-19 victory and sending the game to a deciding third set. Boiling Springs grabbed a quick 3-0 lead in the third set but Landrum was able to battle back to take a 10-9 lead over the Bulldogs when Cloe Wood picked up a block kill to tie the game at 10-10, that started a seven point run for the Bulldogs. Gracie Kilgore started a six point service run for the Bulldogs with an ace serve to give Boiling Springs an 11-10 lead. The service run also included back-to-back kills from Macy Bagwell as the Bulldogs grabbed a 16-10 lead and wouldn't trail in the set the rest of the match. Of the Bulldogs final eight points of the set, six of those points came off kills from seniors Cloe Wood and Savannah Page as Boiling Springs grabbed the 25-20 set win and the 2-1 victory in the match. The match saw a lot of strong contributions from Bulldogs seniors to help pick up the win against the Cardinals. "Savannah, one of our hitters and a setter as well, she stepped up and settled people down and ran our offense," said Elliot. "Gracie, our libero, and Ansley another defensive starter on the back row just passed really well from the back row and gave us opportunities to hit at key times." Savannah Page had an outstanding match for the Bulldogs as she finished in double figures in three different categories as she had ten kills, ten assists, seventeen digs, and two blocks. Cloe Wood led the Bulldogs in kills against Landrum with twelve kills to go along with fifteen digs while Karson Browning had six kills and two blocks. In the match against Chapman the Bulldogs came away with a 2-0 victory in the match as they defeated the Panthers 25-12 in set one while coming away with a 25-17 victory in set two. In the second set against the Panthers, Bulldogs player Gracie Kilgore had an impressive set as she had a six point service run, that included an ace serve, which started on a kill by Kilgore. She also scored the game winning point in the set when her shot fell out of the reach of a Panthers play on the right back corner of the court. Kilgore finished with five ace serves and six digs in the match against Chapman while Logan Kenny also finished the match with five blocks and four kills. Cloe Wood finished the match against the Panthers with five kills, two blocks, six digs, and an ace serve. In both matches the Bulldogs got strong contributions from the front line which Elliot attributes to the depth of her team there this season. "In years past we've had a few weapons there but this year on any given night I feel we have a handful of girls that can put the ball away," said Elliot. "It has given us more options when we play people as well as given us other options if another player is having an off night or not feeling well. We have a lot of talent there and the girls just continue to improve each time we go out." The matches against both teams are the final matches for the Bulldogs before they start region play next week. Elliot feels that the Bulldogs are in a good spot to start region play after some good out-of-region contests, that included a trip to a tournament at Porter Gaud High School in Charleston this past weekend. "The competition we saw this weekend was good for us because it helped us refocus on some things we need to continue to work on to keep getting better," said Elliot. "It also helped us tonight to get the wins we picked up tonight as the competition we saw this past weekend helped us get more mentally strong which benefitted us in situations tonight. I feel like we're at a good point to be heading into region play as there's nobody in our region stronger than the teams we saw this past weekend as we saw some of the most competitive teams in the lower state this weekend." Boiling Springs will kick off region play on Tuesday in a home match against Gaffney before traveling to Nation Ford on Thursday. Just as the sun was rising into the sky on Saturday morning crowds of high school cross country teams flooded the Roger Milliken Center in Spartanburg to compete in the Eye Opener Classic, one of the top and longest running cross country events in the state of South Carolina.
The high school teams competed on the 2.9 mile course on the 600 acre Milliken facility a day after the facility held the college version of the Eye Opener Classic. The event was divided into six different divisions: the International event (men and women), the Championship event (men and women) and the JV event (men and women). In both events the Boiling Springs cross country teams competed in the Championship event, as the men's team came up with a thirtieth place finish out of fifty-one teams and were led by Payne Wood who finished the event with a time of 18:44.0 and Ellison Hill who finished with a time of 19:19.7. River Bluff won the men's Championship event as they had four runners finish in the top twenty-five of individual runners on Saturday. In the women's event the Bulldogs came away with a thirty-fourth place finish while being led by Gabriella Sanchez who finished with a time of 23:42.8 followed by Emilia Sen with a time of 25:30.7 and Navy Turner with a time of 25:45.0. Waccamaw won the women's Championship event as Byrnes was the highest place local finishing team coming away with a fifth place finish. Chapman's Emma Whitaker, the defending 3A state champion, was the top finishing local individual runner in the Championship event finishing the race with a time of 19:57.1, just thirty-one seconds behind the winner on Saturday. In the International event Wade Hampton came away with the victory in the men's event just ahead of Fort Mill while Spartanburg finished the event in sixth place and Dorman finished the event in eighth place. Dorman's Dylan Lego was the top finishing local runner in the International event with a time of 16:30.3. In the women's International event Charlotte Country Day School came away with the victory as Dorman was the highest finishing local team coming away with an eleventh place finish. Dorman's Ella Tombeult was the top finishing local runner in the women's International event finishing the race with a time of 19:45.2, less than a minute behind the first place finisher. Boiling Springs cross country will return to the course on Tuesday when they travel to Woodruff to compete in the Woodruff Meet. In a rivalry matchup between two schools located within ten miles of each other it was the Chapman Panthers who came away with a 41-17 victory over the home standing Boiling Springs Bulldogs on Friday night.
"We just made too many mistakes tonight," said Bulldogs head coach Rick Tate. "When they turn the ball over twice like they did you have to capitalize on those opportunities but we weren't able to get points on either occasion. We did some good things also but we just have to learn how to finish." Chapman took their opening drive from their own seventeen yard to the Boiling Springs eleven yard line before the Bulldogs forced a fumble which was recovered by Boiling Springs defender Luke Compton who returned it to the Bulldogs twenty-nine yard line. After being unable to capitalize on their first drive the Bulldogs found the endzone on their next drive when quarterback Kairon Hines found wide receiver Keondre Keenon down the left side of the field for a fifty-seven yard touchdown pass after big plays from Keenon and Charkei Singleton earlier in the drive helped give Boiling Springs an early 7-0 lead. Chapman responded on the next drive marching down the field in just less than three minutes behind fifty-three yards passing from quarterback Drew Settle that ended with a four yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 7-7 with the Bulldogs. Just before the end of the first quarter Boiling Springs running back Kam Williams started his big night on the ground taking the ball fifty-three yards down the right side to the Chapman nineteen yard line. He added another three yard run to the Chapman sixteen yard line when the buzzer sounded to end the first quarter. After a pass interference call against Chapman the Bulldogs were unable to get any closer than that and went just wide left on a field goal attempt from thirty-seven yards out. Both teams struggled on their next drives until Chapman was able to work themselves back into field goal range and took advantage when kicker Ricky Montalvo hit a thirty-yard field goal to give the Panthers their first lead of the game at 10-7 over Boiling Springs. On the Bulldogs first offensive play after the field goal Williams struck again for the Boiling Springs offense going fifty-three yards on the ground and following that up with a fifteen yard run to put the Bulldogs at the Chapman twelve yard line. On third and seven, Williams was able to pick up four more yards to get the Bulldogs to the ten yard line where they picked up a twenty-seven yard field goal by kicker Kaillou Touch to tie the game at 10-10 with just over two minutes to go in the half. Chapman returned the ensuing kickoff to their own forty-seven yard line and three plays later Drew Settle found Timorean McClurkin on a twenty-five yard touchdown pass down the right side of the field to give the Panthers a 17-10 lead with one minute and twenty-eight seconds left in the half. On the next Bulldogs possession the Panthers Kaden Thompson was able to come up with an over the shoulder interception at midfield to give Chapman the ball back with over a minute to go in the half. Drew Settle found Jonah Rollins on a seventeen yard catch on the right side for a first down before finding Shawn Cunningham four plays later on a thirty-three yard post pass down the seam for a touchdown to give the Panthers a 24-10 halftime lead. Chapman took advantage of the final two minutes of the first half as they scored fourteen unanswered points to switch the momentum of the game. In the third quarter Drew Settle added two more touchdown passes, finding Cunningham for a fifteen yard pass and Walt Waddell for a twenty yard pass, to extend Chapman's lead to 38-10 heading into the fourth quarter. Montalvo added another field goal for the Panthers, this time from twenty-four yards, to extend the Chapman lead to 41-10 over the Bulldogs. Boiling Springs added another score with just over four minutes to go in the game when, running back and Bulldogs track star, Carmelo Martin broke a run down the right sideline outracing his opponents for a sixty-five yard touchdown run to cut the Chapman lead to 41-17 over the Bulldogs. Kam Williams finished the first half for the Bulldogs rushing for 138 yards to lead the Boiling Springs rushing attack, as he finished the night with 175 yards rushing while also adding 30 yards receiving for a total of 205 yards on Friday night. "Kam comes to work everyday and practices hard," said Tate. "Those results showed up on the field tonight. He's a team player and very unselfish. I couldn't be more happy for him to have the game he had tonight." Chapman quarterback Drew Settle led the Panthers offense finishing the night going twenty-four of thirty-six passing for 351 yards and five touchdowns. Boiling Springs will return to action next Friday at home when they host Spartanburg, who defeated Hillcrest 45-37 on Friday night. Chapman will return home next Friday night to host Brookland-Cayce. |
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