Home Local Sports Perfect start to season continues for Lady Raiders

Perfect start to season continues for Lady Raiders

Senior Savannah Jordan was one of several bowlers to help the Lady Raiders improve to 3-0. (Deon Cranford)

LAURINBURG — Continuing its perfect start to the season, the Richmond Senior High School girls’ bowling team collected another win on Thursday.

Facing Sandhills Athletic Conference opponent Hoke County High School, the Lady Raiders earned a 4-1 victory. The team was just two pins away from completing the five-point sweep.

Richmond was also scheduled to bowl against Union Pines High School, but the team didn’t participate in the match due to the power outage in Moore County this week.

Head coach Ralph Butler explained that the Lady Raiders still bowled their four games for the Union Pines match and said that the Lady Vikings would make up their games at a later date to decide the winner.

“Ashlyn Bouldin followed up her Athlete of the Week performance with another strong outing tonight,” Butler said. “She’s been a great bowler and throws a great ball and led the way. She closed out 9-of-16 frames and had a lot of nine-pin throws that could easily have been strikes. 

“Ava Thompson also had a good night closing out 7-of-14 frames,” he added. “She continues to get better and is just so competitive that she will compete regardless if someone is beside us or not.”

Sophomore Ava Thompson prepares to bowl in Richmond’s win over Hoke County. (Deon Cranford/The Richmond Observer)

Lady Raiders earn third straight win

Despite dropping the opening game by a single pin against Hoke County, the Lady Raiders rallied to defeat the Lady Bucks. Strong third and fourth games were the difference makers.

Scores were 103-104, 115-108, 129-85 and 134-100, setting up the fourth point thanks to a pin total victory of 481-397. Through their four games, the Lady Raiders averaged 120.3 pins.

Relying heavily on picking up the extra pins, the Lady Raiders rolled a season-high 12 spares as a team. Bouldin, a senior, had four to lead the way and Thompson, along with seniors Rylie Bohman and Molly Erwin, had two spares each.

Bouldin’s four spares came through the first three games and Erwin and Thompson each had one of the team’s four strikes in the win. Senior Cadence Thompson had a team-high two strikes in the anchor spot and added a spare.

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Bohman’s two spares came in the second and fourth games and senior Savannah Jordan had one spare in the first contest. 

Closing out four of her eight frames, Bouldin bowled a 50% clip and Erwin was also at the 50% mark, closing 3-of-6 frames.

Richmond bowls four games for Union Pines match

Getting a head start in its match with Union Pines, Richmond put together another four strong games. Rolling their second-highest total score of the season through four matches, the Lady Raiders finished with 526 pins.

Individual game scores were 137, 127, 115 and 147. The Lady Raiders had eight strikes and 11 spares. Richmond averaged a score of 131.5 pins per game.

Ava Thompson’s three strikes and three spares led the way (75%) and Bouldin followed with three strikes and two spares (63%).

Bohman and senior Addison Massey each rolled a strike, Erwin had two spares and Jordan chipped in one more spare.

The Lady Raiders (3-0, 12 points) will compete in one more meet before the holiday break. 

Returning to Aberdeen next Thursday, Richmond will face Lee County High School and bowl an open game for points. Play will begin at 4 p.m.

Note: Stats and match information were provided by Ralph Butler and Deon Cranford contributed photos to this article.



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Kyle Pillar is a 22-time North Carolina Press Association award-winning sports editor with The Richmond Observer. Follow the sports department on X @ROSports_ for the best in-depth coverage of Richmond County sports.