SOUTHERN PINES — The pins kept falling for the Richmond Senior High School girls’ bowling team Tuesday, which kept its undefeated start to the season going.
Competing in the first of their two conference meets this week, the Lady Raiders defeated one opponent and clinched more points in their bye match.
Facing West Johnston High School in their opening match, the Lady Raiders rolled to a 5-0 win, making it their third shutout victory of the season.
In its bye match, the team bowled four games and added those scores and five automatic points to their season totals.
The Lady Raiders, who have progressed each match this season, posted single-match season-highs in total pins (569), single-game score (192), average game score (142.3) and closing percentage (52.4%) against the Lady Wildcats.
Additionally, Richmond tied its best combined closing percentage of the season across both matches – 48.8% (41-of-84).
Another shutout win for Lady Raiders
Richmond’s first meeting with West Johnston this season proved to be an easy contest as they kept the Lady Wildcats scoreless in a 5-0 win. Game scores were 192-107, 118-101, 146-126 and 113-89, resulting in a final score of 569-423.
With their .524 closing percentage, the Lady Raiders also bowled a single-match season-high nine strikes. The other 13 frames they closed were spares.
Freshman Ava Parks split games with senior Skyler Collins, but was a perfect 4-for-4 in her frames bowled (100%). She knocked down two strikes and two spares.
Collins was also productive in her four frames, closing three of them for a .750 closing percentage with three helpers.
Bowling eight frames in the four games, senior Jentry Denson went 6-for-8 (75%). She had three strikes and three spares.
Three other bowlers – junior Jorja Moore and sophomores Sydney Barnes and Kaylon Wynn – contributed to the victory. Next on the stat sheet was Wynn from the anchor, who closed 4-of-10 frames (40%) with two strikes and two spares.
Barnes went 3-for-8 (38%) with two stikes and a spare, while Moore had two helpers in her eight rolls (25%).
Bye match adds pins, points to season total
Having the lane to themselves in their bye match, the Lady Raiders bowled four games to stack up the pin count. Automatically earning another five points, the bye match totals will be factored into the season’s final conference standings.
Richmond started the bye with a game score of 160, and followed with scores of 135, 103 and 129 for a final pin total of 527. The team averaged 131.8 pins per game and rolled eight strikes and 11 spares.
Four of the six bowlers each finished 50% or better when it came to closing frames. This time around, it was Barnes who topped the scoresheet with a .630 closing percentage (5-of-8). She had two strikes and three spares.
Wynn (5-for-10), Moore (4-for-8) and Parks (2-for-4) were all at 50%. Knocking down two strikes and three spares was Wynn, Moore had two strikes and two spares and Parks ended the match with one strike and one spare.
Denson (2-for-8) and Collins (1-for-4) each had a .250 closing percentage. Denson rolled a strike and a spare, and Collins closed out the scoring with one spare.
With three meets (six matches) in the books this season, the Lady Raiders currently have 27 points in the conference standings.
The Lady Raiders (6-0) will put their perfect record to the test Thursday when they face Pinecrest and Scotland high schools at Laurinburg Lanes. The first match will begin at 4 p.m.
