ABERDEEN — The Richmond Senior High School girls’ bowling team swept its competition to open its new Sandhills Athletic Conference season on Thursday.
The Lady Raiders defeated Southern Lee High School 5-0 due to a forfeit, and bowled their way to a 3-2 comeback win over Pinecrest High School.
Following the Baker format, which sees five bowlers each bowl two frames, each match featured four games.
A game win secured a point and the team that finished with the highest pin total after four games earned a possible fifth point.
The Lady Raiders opened their day against Southern Lee, which had to forfeit due to not having enough bowlers. Richmond rolled game scores of 135, 94, 101 and 110 for a pin total of 440.
Head coach Ralph Butler said that match, which featured less pressure, prepared the Lady Raiders for a quality Pinecrest team. Richmond was also without juniors Ashlyn Bouldin and Addison Massey, who had Beta Club induction.
“It’s good to be back to a little bit of normalcy in terms of the whole conference being here,” Butler said. “The energy was a lot better, especially with the matches against Pinecrest at the end.
“The girls had a good start in the forfeit and I was curious how they would bowl,” he added. “And against Pinecrest they did really well and I was proud of them to be able to come back and get the win.”
The Lady Raiders bowled six strikes in the forfeit, led by two each from juniors Molly Erwin and Cadence Thompson. Adding one strike each were junior Rylie Bohman and freshman Ava Thompson.
In that match, the team collected five spares, including a team-high three from Ava Thompson, who anchored the final game. Also helping the team collect pins were freshmen newcomers Payton Powell and Lilly Stubbs.
Against Pinecrest, the Lady Raiders dropped the first two games by scores of 91-101 and 85-138. Facing a two-game deficit, Richmond rallied with two final game scores of 129-86 and 124-86 to take the pin total 429-411.
Ava Thompson had a team-high two strikes and added a spare against the Lady Patriots, and both Erwin and Powell contributed a strike. Erwin’s two spares were a team best, while Bohman and Powell collected one spare each to secure the comeback win.
“We missed having Ashlyn and Addison, who are two really strong bowlers,” Butler said. “But the other girls stepped up and bowled really well. Ava is going to do well this season, Cadence did well tonight and Rylie and Molly had some good rolls, too.”
The Lady Raiders (2-0) will return to action next Thursday in Laurinburg for two more SAC matches against Hoke County and Union Pines high schools. Action will start at 4 p.m.
