From staff reports
North Rowan’s girls tennis team opened the season on Monday with a 7-2 win against West Rowan.
Dakota Honeycutt, Daisy Lemke, Taylor Love and Catherine Crawford won in singles for the Cavaliers.
Adrienne Rusher and Lauren Compton won for the Falcons.
North swept doubles, with Honeycutt-Veronica Leasure, Lemke-Love and Crawford-Casey Eller coming out on top.
“For our first match, I thought the girls did a good job of coming out and competing,” North coach Sallie Hundley said. “I am especially proud of the way Honeycutt battled back after dropping the first set to win the match with a close tie-breaker. I thought that was the decisive match because it gave us a 4-2 lead after singles and took some of the pressure off our doubles teams.”
See Scoreboard for results.
Prep soccer
South Rowan’s boys defeated East Rowan 4-0 in a first-round match in the Rowan County Soccer Tournament on Monday.
Javier Saucedo scored two goals and added an assist for the Raiders.
Luke Jester added a goal and an assist. Dalton Carter scored on an assist by Alex Reed.
Tony Ramirez secured the shutout in goal behind the stellar defense of Luis Delgado, Dillon Beam, Alex Hopkins, and Tyler Livengood.
The Raiders also had outstanding play in the midfield by Angel Dominguez, Abel Betancourt, Julio Reyes and Luis Fierro.
South outshot the Mustangs 21-3 and will now play Carson at 5:30 p.m. today at Salisbury in a semifinal.
West Rowan, a first-round victor against North Rowan, will take on Salisbury at 7 p.m. in the other semifinal.
The championship game is scheduled for Thursday at SHS.
College football
Livingstone’s football team took the field at Alumni Memorial Stadium on Saturday for the first day of practice in preparation for the upcoming campaign.
“The first day of practice came with a lot excitement and anticipation,” coach Elvin James said. “We are going through the process of identifying players and positions.”
According to the CIAA preseason poll, the Blue Bears are predicted to finish 12th in the league and sixth in the Southern Division.
The Blue Bears are looking to bounce back after winning only one game in 2011.
“We have high expectations for the season,” James said. “We have to start from the core to eradicate the mindset of losing. We have about 20 freshman and nine transfers who will play a major role in turning the program around.”
Livingstone will open at home against Chowan on Sept. 1. Kickoff is at 6 p.m.
American Legion
South Carolina champ Florence won the Southeast Regional tourney on Monday in Sumter.
Florence Post 1 beat Tuscaloosa, Ala., 9-6, and then beat Wilmington, N.C., 10-2 to win the championship and a trip to the World Series.
Both of Wilmington Post 10’s losses were to Florence.
College volleyball
Catawba’s volleyball team was picked second in the preseason SAC poll and got one first-place vote.
Perennial champ Wingate was picked first. Lincoln Memorial, Tusculum and Lenoir-Rhyne rounded out the top five.
Catawba’s Jordan Raye and Kaitlyn Whitmer are on the preseason All-SAC first team and Jenny Young is on the second team.
Local golf
The McCanless Couples played with a three-man Best Ball format on Sunday.
The team of Ricky and Treva Honeycutt and Tim Trexler finished first.
The team of Sharon Miller and Ty and Bev Cobb was second.
Closest to the pin on No. 3 was won by Tim Earnhardt. Longest putt was won on No. 8 by Miller. n The Country Club of Salisbury Member-Member champions are Blake Wray and Nathan Frick.
Charles Graeber-Bill Haynes finished runner-up to Wray-Frick in Flight 1.
Winning Flight 2 was Steve Antosek-Josh Brincefield. Runner-up was Corey Basinger-Seth Waller.
Flight 3 winner was Jerry Wright-Chris Smith. Runner-up was Russ Priddy-Stan Osteen.
Brad Vinson-Chace Jensen won Flight 4. Runner-up was the team of Tim Young-Richard Dwiggins.
The winning team in Flight 5 was James Poe-Bob Rusher. Runner-up was David Fisher-Bill Kesler.
Minor leagues
Courtney Hawkins, a first-round pick by the Chicago White Sox in June, has been promoted from Bristol to Kannapolis.
Hawkins, who famously back-flipped when he was chosen on draft day, was the 13th overall selection.
Hawkins was the Texas High School Baseball Player of the Year as a senior. He hit .412 as a senior to go along with a 0.92 ERA on the mound.
In 38 games at Bristol, Hawkins batted .272 with three homers, 16 RBIs and eight steals.
The Intimidators are at home for a seven-game homestand through Sunday.
The Kannapolis Intimidators beat Delmarva 7-0 at home on Monday in the completion of a suspended game.
Adam Heisler’s three-run homer was the key blow.
The Intimidators scored twice in the fifth to break a 2-2 tie and won the regularly scheduled game 4-3 in a seven-inning contest to sweep the doubleheader.
The teams play two more today, resuming a suspended game in the fourth inning at 5 p.m. and playing seven innings afterward.n The Winston-Salem Dash announced the promotion of outfielder Trayce Thompson to Double A Birmingham.
Thompson leads the Carolina League with 22 homers and 90 RBIs.
Albuquerque’s Jerry Sands (Catawba) had hits in his first two at-bats in a late game in Reno on Monday to bump his batting average to .296.
Northwest Arkansas’ Whit Merrifield (Davie) had a run-scoring single in a 4-3 win against Fresno in the Texas League on Monday night.
Fishing
Fourteen teams competed in the NCCATS Lake Norman Catfish Tournament held over the weekend.
First place went to Ken Tucker and Aaron Civcevich. Their two fish weighed 63 pounds. They won $220.