GREENVILLE, SC - In front of a raucous group of fans from both teams on Monday night Boiling Springs and Wade Hampton battled in a back and forth match that saw the Generals come away with a 3-2 victory to advance to the third round of the 5A playoffs. While the Bulldogs ended up on the losing end of the match on Monday night they made the Generals earn the victory. "We didn't step on the court ready to play in the first set but I'm proud of how we got our composure together and battled back," said Bulldogs head coach Allyson Elliot. "I think we really showed what Bulldogs are made of and even though the first set didn't go our way we battled back and moved forward." Boiling Springs fell behind early in the first set trailing 11-3 before the first timeout in the match. The Generals outscored the Bulldogs 14-6 the rest of the set to claim a 25-9 victory in the first set to take a 1-0 lead in the match. The second set saw an almost completely different Bulldogs team show up on the court as the results of the first set quickly faded from their mind. With both teams tied at 3-3, the Bulldogs went on a 5-1 run to extend their lead to 8-4 behind two big blocks from Logan Kenny and an ace serve from Savannah Page. The Generals closed the lead to 17-15 but two back-to-back kills by the Bulldogs Savannah Page pushed the Boiling Springs lead to 19-15. "Savannah is a competitor and keeps her composure and I think the team needed to see her calm after our first set," said Elliot. "After that first set when we could have gotten rattled she kept it together and the team flows how she does and I'm really proud of her leadership." Cloe Wood with a spike kill to the middle of the court and a block by Macy Bagwell finished the set in favor of the Bulldogs as they evened the match at 1-1 with a 25-21 victory in the second set. Boiling Springs carried their momentum from the second set into the third set as they worked to take a lead in the match. After falling behind 2-1, three straight kills by Cloe Wood gave the Bulldogs a 4-2 lead in the second set. With the Bulldogs leading 11-8 they extended their lead to 14-8 over the Generals after an amazing shot by Charlotte Hutchins landed just inside the Wade Hampton backline along an ace serve from Taylor Crosby and a kill by Cloe Wood. Wade Hampton battled back to take a 27-26 lead in the set but a kill by Savannah Page, a net violation by the Generals, as well as a block off the hands of Charlotte Hutchins and Logan Kenny gave the Bulldogs the final three points of the match to take a 29-27 victory in the third set. With the victory in the third set the Bulldogs took a 2-1 lead in the match. The fourth set saw both teams once again battle as the lead went back and forth but in the end the Generals took a 31-29 victory in the set to tie the match at 2-2. In the fifth set Wade Hampton took their momentum from the fourth set to grab an early 10-4 lead before winning the set 15-7 to win the match. Savannah Page continued her outstanding play this season as she had 30 assists, 12 digs, 10 kills, two blocks and two ace serves while Cloe Wood led the team in kills with 19 kills, 23 digs, and one ace serve. Gracie Kilgore led the team in digs with 36 digs while Sydney Henderson added ten assists. Logan Kenny and Karson Browning led the team in blocks with three blocks each while Kenny added five kills and Browning added eight kills of her own. Taylor Crosby and Morgan Hammett both added two ace serves in the match on Monday. While the match ends the Bulldogs season, it also marks the end of the high school careers of seven seniors (Gracie Kilgore, Amelia Gregg, Savannah Page, Ansley Hammet, Logan Kenny, Taylor Crosby, and Sydney Henderson) that Elliot says has set a foundation for the teams that will come after them. "The seniors set the bar high for this team and I think the younger kids coming up now know what it takes to win at a high level and I believe they'll come back with a hunger for that in the future," said Elliot. "I told the team after the match you don't never think about the speech you're going to give if you lose because you always think there's going to be a next game to play and it hit us hard tonight knowing this was the last game for those seniors. I'm super proud of that group of seniors as these last few years haven't been easy with Covid and everything else but they've stayed united and worked hard. They've been team players and they're going to be missed greatly." Bulldogs Swimmers Named To All-RegionOn Monday the All-Region swimming team was named for Region III-5A and the Bulldogs were well represented.
Ashton Threadgill, Garrett Watson, Miles Humphreys, and Morgan Greenlee were all named to the All-Region team on Monday. Senior swimmer Will Humphreys had double the reasons to celebrate on Monday as he was also named All-Region and All-State. Comments are closed.
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