Area Sports Briefs: Four Rowan teams make soccer playoffs; East’s softball season ends

Published 1:03 am Saturday, May 13, 2023

 

 

From staff reports

Salisbury, North Rowan, West Rowan and South Rowan made the soccer state playoffs.

All will be on the road in the first round on Monday.

West Rowan is seeded 26th in the 32-team 3A West bracket and will travel to Winston-Salem to play seventh-seeded Atkins.

South Rowan is seeded 28th in 3A West and will play at No. 5 seed Hickory.

Salisbury is seeded 26th in 2A West and plays at No. 7 Wilkes Central.

North Rowan is seeded 27th in 1A West and will travel to Bryson City to play No. 6 Swain County.

Lake Norman Charter (seeded third), Central Cabarrus (12th) and Northwest Cabarrus (22nd) were the other South Piedmont Conference teams to make the state playoffs.

The Central Carolina Conference will have West Davidson (3) and East Davidson (12) in the 2A West playoffs and will have South Davidson (9) in the 1A West playoffs.

Gray Stone is in the 1A bracket as the No. 15 seed and will host No. 18 Uwharrie Charter in the first round.

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Carson defeated Concord 6-0 on Wednesday’s Senior Night in China Grove.

Makayla Borst scored four goals, while Lexlyth Sotelo and Allie Martin scored one.

Borst and Martin had assists.

• Carson lost 10-0 to Lake Norman Charter on Thursday.

 

HS softball

CANDLER — East Rowan’s softball season ended Thursday with a 5-1 loss at Enka in the second round of the 3A state playoffs.

Not much went right for the 17th-seeded Mustangs (15-9) and against top-seeded Enka (22-0).

“We played like we were jet-lagged,” East coach Todd McNeely said.

Just getting there was an adventure. Because of a delay from a wreck on Interstate 40 and a mountain climb at 30 mph, the Mustangs were on the bus for 3 hours, 45 minutes.

They had a shortened  warmup period.

“Then we made some uncharacteristic mistakes on routine plays,” McNeely said. “Can’t do that against the No. 1 team. We picked a bad day to have an average game.”

Still, it was a good season.

“Happy with the season and with the growth,” McNeely said. “We were not the same 17 seed that we were last year.”

HS boys tennis

East Rowan’s doubles team of Ryan Brady/Owen Kesler lost in the first round of the 3A State Championships.

The Mustangs dropped a  6-1, 6-4 decision to (Greenville) Rose’s Wyatt Schmidt/Bryson Wall.

Schmidt/Wall lost in the quarterfinals to a Carrboro team. Two Carrboro teams reached Saturday’s semifinals.

HS track and field

Regionals to qualify athletes for the state meet were conducted on Friday and Saturday.

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Carson sisters Makayla and Hayley Borst signed with Pfeiffer track and field/cross country on Friday.

College softball

Catawba’s Riley Tucker and Brianna Gallagher were named to SAC All-Tournament team.