The Boiling Springs girls tennis team battled hard on Wednesday night but fell to Fort Mill 5-1 in their second straight game in two days.
After putting themselves in place for a chance at a playoff spot on Tuesday by defeating Clover, the Bulldogs fell just short Wednesday despite some great efforts on the court. In the five matches that the Bulldogs dropped on Wednesday, three of the matches went to tiebreakers while Boiling Springs was able to come out on the victorious side in a fourth tiebreaker. "It was tough region loss for us tonight," said Bulldogs head coach Jill Cooke. "The score doesn't reflect how well the girls played tonight as all but two of the matches went to tiebreakers." The matches at the one seed, three seed, and number two doubles all went to tiebreakers that saw the Bulldogs fall just short with the fourth tiebreaker in the match being won by Boiling Springs' Emily Krechko (6-0, 4-6, (10-5)) in the number four singles match. While the Bulldogs season ended on Wednesday night the future for the team next season looks bright as they will only be losing one senior from this season. As the lights glowed down on the Boiling Springs tennis courts on a cool fall night Boiling Springs junior Madison Ball hit a serve that ricocheted off a Clover racket into the net to give the Bulldogs a 4-3 victory on Tuesday night. The deciding match was a victory by Ball and fellow junior Sydney Braswell (6-2, 6-4) in number one singles that kept the Bulldogs in the hunt for the 2020 playoffs.
"I'm very proud of the whole team and they all just did a phenomenal job tonight," said Boiling Springs head coach Jill Cooke. "Our number one doubles have been working really hard at getting themselves in sync because we knew with this region a lot of matches could come down to their results. They've worked hard because they know they can control if we win the match or not." Before competing in number one doubles Ball came away with a victory (6-3, 6-3) in number one singles and Braswell grabbed a victory (6-1, 6-1) in number two singles. Boiling Springs honored their lone senior, Emma Kotzur, on Tuesday night and she came away with a very important win for the Bulldogs (6-3, 6-3) in number three singles that forced the tiebreaker match at number one singles. Coach Cooke says that having a player like Kotzur is key to having a winning team. "In tennis you want to win in the top seeds but you really want to be able to count on that third seed and Emma has been very valuable to us in that spot," said Cooke. "She has gone between the three and four spots for us all season and has been very consistent for us in both spots." The Bulldogs now sit in the third spot in the region but with a win could move into the second seed and make the 5A playoffs this season. It's a spot that Coach Cooke wasn't sure they could get to at the start of the season but say this team has proven to her that they can get there. "With the strength of this region I wasn't sure how we were going to look when this season started but these girls have impressed me all season," said Cooke. "If we play like we did tonight then I have no doubt we can win tomorrow. This victory is going to be big for their confidence going into tomorrow." Boiling Springs will return to the court on Wednesday in a key region matchup against Nation Ford with the playoffs on the line and the match will begin at 4:30 P.M. The Boiling Springs girls golf team won the Region III-5A championship in impressive fashion on Monday at the Chester Golf Club as they won the championship by forty-four strokes over the second place team.
Boiling Springs shot an overall team score of 318 to win the championship and had two players shoot in the sixties. The Bulldogs MK Talledo was the medalist of the match as she led all golfers on Monday with a tournament low score of sixty-four followed closely behind by Madison Dixon who shot a sixty-eight. Both golfers were joined by fellow Bulldog Sarah Wentz on the All-Region team as Boiling Springs players held three of the eight spots on the All-Region team. The Bulldogs will compete in the Smith Memorial tournament in Newberry, SC on Tuesday before preparing for the Upper State tournament at the Chester Golf Club on October 19th. On Saturday afternoon the Boiling Springs swim team went up to Fort Mill to compete in the Region III-5A championships and came home with three region champions and multiple podium finishes.
"I couldn't be any more proud of how these kids came out and raced today," said Bulldogs head coach Lanie Peden. "They dug deep and gave excellent effort. We had some of the best individual races we have seen in a long time and numerous personal bests." The Bulldogs first region championship came from their boys 200y medley relay team (Will Humphreys, Ashton Threadgill, Samuel Jouault, and Garrett Watson) who won in a time of 1:43.31 and over a second ahead of the second place team. In the 100y butterfly events the Bulldogs had won the region championship in both events as Katelyn Mazurowski won the girls event in a time of 1:01.13 and Will Humphreys won in the boys event with a time of 54.78. Mazurowki and Humphreys also both came away with second place podium finishes in the 100y backstroke events as Mazurowki finished just four tenths of a second behind first place and Humphreys finished just under a second behind the region champion in his event. Garrett Watson came away with a second place finish in the boys 500y freestyle event while Ashton Threadgill came away with a second place podium finish in the boys 100y breaststroke event for the Bulldogs. Threadgill also picked up a second place finish in the 200y individual medley event. The Bulldogs girls 200y medley relay team (Molly Verdell, Lauren Agnew, Katelyn Mazurowki, and Makenzy Carothers) also picked up a third place podium finish in the region championships meet on Saturday. Also the boys and girls freestyle relay teams both came away with third place podium finishes on Saturday as both teams were within just a few seconds of the region championship. Coach Peden said that she was happy with her team's performance but that a lack of numbers hurt them from winning more events which they will work on this offseason. "The way the region is set up with scoring it's hard for a team of our size to put up the points of the board against teams our size," said Peden. "That is one of the biggest things we need to work on this offseason. Swimming is such an incredible sport and we just need to find more swimmers at Bulldog nation." The Bulldogs will find out on Monday who be participating at the state championships that will be held at the North Charleston Aquatic Center. The girls that make it will compete on Friday while the boys will compete on the following Monday. With a sold out pandemic sized crowd the Boiling Springs football team put on quite the show in their first game in front of the home crowd defeating Nation Ford 45-28 on Friday night.
”I’m proud of the guys getting a win for the seniors here tonight,” said Bulldogs head coach Rick Tate. “I’m proud of the effort we had tonight but we still have some areas we’ve got to get better at as a team. Any time you get a win though it’s a good thing.” The Bulldogs got on the board first when senior quarterback Jalen Dodd found Brent Fowler on a seventeen yard touchdown pass to put Boiling Springs ahead 7-0 early and the touchdown was set up by an impressive punt return by senior safety Caden Sullivan. In the second quarter the Bulldogs extended their lead when senior running back Cam Mills ran the ball to the right side for seven yards to put his team up 14-0 with seven minutes to go in the quarter. Nation Ford got their first score of the game when quarterback Carson Black found a diving Ty Keaton in the right side of the endzone for a nineteen yard touchdown pass and get the Falcons within a score. Boiling Springs responded just two minutes later when Dodd found wide receiver Jacob Hamrick on a thirty-four yard touchdown pass to put the Bulldogs back ahead by two touchdowns. After another impressive stop by their defense Boiling Springs got the ball back and scored on the very first play of the drive when Dodd found senior Caden Sullivan for a sixty-seven yard touchdown on a slant route to put the Bulldogs up 28-7 at halftime. The Falcons got on the board first in the second half when Carson Black hit Ty Keaton on a five yard touchdown pass to cut the Bulldogs lead in half. Nation Ford tried to cut into the lead even more on their next possession but Caden Sullivan denied them when he intercepted a pass at the three yard line and returned it for a touchdown to put Boiling Springs up 35-14 with just over three minutes to go in the third quarter. It was the second touchdown of the night for the senior safety on his senior night as he scored from both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. "It was a great performance for him, he's an iron man," said Tate. "We have him doing a lot of stuff for us and he's just showcasing his talents. Appalachian State is getting a good one in him." As the fourth quarter came around the Bulldogs got another shot with their offense as Dodd found Mills for a twenty yard touchdown on the right side of the field to put the Bulldogs up 42-14. After the Falcons returned the next kickoff for a touchdown they added another score when kicker Kaillou Touch hit a thirty-yard field goal to put the Bulldogs up 45-21. Nation Ford added another touchdown with under a minute to go in the game when Black found Steven McFadden on a twenty-six yard touchdown pass to put the final score at 45-28 in favor of the Bulldogs. Boiling Springs got an outstanding game from senior quarterback Jalen Dodd who finished the night with 310 yards passing with four touchdowns to go along with 100 yards of rushing as well. "I'm so proud of Jalen and how he has grown up to lead this football team," said Tate. "He has worked really hard this offseason and that couldn't have happened to a better person." Dodd said that while it was his senior game it was just another game for him because he expects this from himself whenever he steps on the field. "We went through a lot of trial and error last year so this year it feels good to come out here with my guys and perform like this," said Dodd. "Even though tonight was senior night it was just another game on another night. We always got to come out here and make big plays." Cam Mills also had a good night offensively for the Bulldogs as he rushed for seventy-seven yards with a touchdown while adding fifty-two yards in the passing game with a touchdown catch. The Bulldogs will look to continue their winning ways next week as they travel to Clover for another region matchup. Clover defeated Fort Mill 21-14 on Friday night. For photos from senior night click here. |
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