LAURINBURG — Season-highs in several categories helped the Richmond Senior High School girls’ bowling team earn a win Thursday.
Returning to Sandhills Athletic Conference for the first time in the new year, the Lady Raiders split their matches against Scotland and Pinecrest high schools.
Bowling in its fourth dual-match of the winter, Richmond opened the day with a 4-1 win over the Lady Scots, completing the season sweep.
In the win, the Lady Raiders set season-highs in strikes, closing percentage, single-game high score, pin total and game average.
The Lady Raiders couldn’t keep the momentum going against Pinecrest and fell short 4-1. It was the team’s second loss to the Lady Patriots this season.
“It was great to see the girls come out with a lot of energy against Scotland and set the tone early,” head coach Ashleigh Larsen said. “That’s something we’ve discussed needing to do, and as a result we put together our best match of the season.
“Competing against Pinecrest is always tough and today we were just a few rolls away from evening the series,” she added. “I’m proud of the way the girls kept their heads up and battled until the end.”
As a team, the Lady Raiders set a new season-high in combined closing percentage with a mark of .426.
Senior Neely Turner (62.5%), junior Ava Thompson (57.1% and senior Katie Way (56.2%) each bowled a season-best closing percentage.
Lady Raiders complete sweep of Scotland
Bowling a season-high 12 strikes as a unit, the Lady Raiders made quick work of Scotland. Game scores were 127-101, 155-90, 139-111 and 99-131 for a final pin count of 520-433.
Going 19-for-44 on closing its frames, Richmond set a new team season-high of 43.2%. Other season-bests were single game score (155), pin total (520) and average game score (130).
Thompson, Turner and Way each rolled four strikes apiece, which was a season-high for each bowler. Leading the way was Thompson, who added four spares to finish 8-of-12 (66.7%).
Turner had a spare (62.5%) and junior Hanna Smith was the only other bowler to close out frames with two spares in her eight tries.
Richmond outdone by Lady Patriots
Richmond’s luck carried over into the first game against Pinecrest which resulted in a 117-115 win.
But from that point on it was all Pinecrest which took the next three games 103-126, 154-169 and 142-148 for a final score of 516-558.
The Lady Raiders bowled an average score of 129 to Pinecrest’s 139.5. Richmond had six strikes, 11 spares and closed 41.5% of its frames (17-of-41).
Turner and Way both went 5-for-8, with Turner bowling three strikes and two spares. Way added three spares and two strikes.
Thompson bowled four spares, Smith chipped in two spares and sophomore Jentry Denson closed out one frame with a strike.
The Lady Raiders (4-4) will continue SAC regular-season action next week in Aberdeen. They’ll compete against Pinecrest and Hoke County starting at 4 p.m.
