As 2017 draws to a close, Thunder Radio Sports looks back at some of the highlights of the calendar year for each of the 40 prep teams we follow and report on.  Today we look back at the year for the CHS Golf team.  The Red Raiders enjoyed their best season of the year winning the district and region titles and advancing to the state tournament for the first time ever as a team.

Thunder Radio reported on the state tournament in a story we published on October 5^th

Austin Farris of CHS Golf

Despite cutting 11 strokes off of Tuesday’s team score, the Red Raider golf team’s charge up the leaderboard on Wednesday ran out of time before Coffee County could earn a team medal.  The Red Raiders shot a round of 313 on Wednesday to finish in 6th place in the team standings.  Coffee County finished with a 2 day team total of 637.

Starting on the 10th tee on Wednesday, Coffee County was forced to play the more difficult back 9 first.  All 5 CHS golfers struggled on the 13th hole which stunted the Red Raider momentum.  In spite of a bogey on 13, Austin Farris managed to shoot a closing round of 3 under par to finish as the low individual for Coffee County as he finished in 33rd place.  Farris posted a 69 on Wednesday.  Matthew Hale rebounded nicely on Wednesday as he shot a 79.  Reid Lawrence fired an 80, Samuel Prater shot an 85 and Josh Perry fired a 94.  Knoxville Halls won the team championship as they fired a 2 day score of 569 which was 7 strokes under par.

The Red Raiders finish the season with an astounding record of 52 and 8.  Tournament stats and the final leaderboard can be found at: http://golf.tssaa.org/tournament.cfm?id=20171202

As 2017 draws to a close, Thunder Radio Sports looks back at some of the highlights of the calendar year for each of the 40 prep teams we follow and report on.  Today we look back at the year for the Coffee County CHS volleyball team.  The Lady Raiders made their 6^th straight region tournament appearance after winning the District 8AAA Title.

Thunder Radio reported on the district tournament championship in a story we published on October 6^th

The 2017 Dist 8AAA Volleyball Champions

The Coffee County volleyball team blazed through Thursday night’s semifinals and finals to capture the District 8AAA tournament championship in Lincoln County.   After capturing the regular season via a tiebreaker, the Lady Raiders left no doubt who the better team was in the district tournament as they swept Franklin County and Lincoln County in straight sets.  Coffee County captured their first district title since 2014 and secured their 6th straight trip to next week’s region tournament.

In the semifinals, Coffee County jumped on Franklin County from the first point as they cruised past the Rebelettes in straight sets 25-11, 25-12 and 25-19.  Six service aces in the first set gave an indication of how strong the Coffee County service game was all night. The Lady Raiders finished the match with 19 aces against only 9 service errors.  Tyana Fenton led the team in aces with 6.  Abigail Parker and Odalis Garcia each added 4 aces for the Lady Raiders.  Freshman Lexi Bryan had Coffee County’s only block and led the team in kills with 8 including one on the first point of the match.  Tyana Fenton had 9 digs and Amada Mukai finished with 19 assists.  The win advanced Coffee County to the finals against the winner of the other semifinal game.

You can download a copy of the broadcast at: http://www.podcastgarden.com/episode/franklin-county-vs-coffee-county-high-school-volleyball_115319

In the other semifinal, Lincoln County used a raucous crowd to rally from behind to beat Columbia in 5 sets.  The emotional win, coupled with a renewed Lady Raider determination, served to hamper the Lady Falcons in the first set of the finals.  Coffee County roared out to a 14 to 2 lead on their way to a championship sweep.  The Lady Raiders won by set scores of 25-20, 25-16 and 25-10.

Leading 4 to 2 in the first set, senior Tyana Fenton served 10 straight points, including 5 aces in the run, to give the Lady Raiders a seemingly insurmountable 14 to 2 lead.  Lincoln County found their footing and rebounded to cut the deficit to 22 to 16 before the Lady Raiders closed out the first set on a Keelie Hillis kill.  After chopping through Lincoln County in the 2nd set, Coffee County started the 3rd set on another serving tear.  Amanda Mukai served 4 aces to help jump start Coffee County to an 8 to 0 lead.  That blistering start silenced the Lincoln County student section and put the tournament championship question to rest.

Once again, Coffee County was brilliant at the service line as they had 16 aces.  Fenton led the team in aces with 5.  Mukai added the 4 aces and Abigail Parker and Abigail Layne each came off the bench with a pair of aces.  Fenton once again led the team in digs with 10 while Alliyah Williams added 9.  Keelie Hillis had the team lead in kills with 7 while senior Odalis Garcia had 6 kills, including the kill on championship point.  Williams added 6 kills and 9 digs.

Following the match, Coffee County had 3 players named to the All-District team and Tyana Fenton was named the District 8AAA Most Valuable Player.  Fenton, the career leader in digs for Coffee County, was joined on the all-district team by fellow seniors Alliyah Williams and Odalis Garcia, along with sophomore Keelie Hillis.

Coffee County will now advance to next week’s Region 4AAA tournament in Murfreesboro.  The date and times will be announced this weekend.

You can download a copy of the broadcast at: http://www.podcastgarden.com/episode/lincoln-county-vs-coffee-county-high-school-volleyball_115330

As 2017 draws to a close, Thunder Radio Sports looks back at some of the highlights of the calendar year for each of the 40 prep teams we follow and report on.  Today we look back at the year for the Westwood cross country teams.  The Rocket harriers completed another strong season complete with Bodey Todd competing in the state meet in Knoxville.

Thunder Radio reported on the their final meet of the season in a story we published on September 22^nd

Patricia Barrera of Westwood XC

The Westwood Middle School cross country teams closed out their season on Tuesday in Fayetteville at Don Davidson Park.  The Rocket and Lady Rocket harriers ended the year on a high note as they each captured high individual finishes and strong team finishes.  Lady Rocket Patricia Barrera won the girls’ race while Bodey Todd had a 2nd place finish for the Rockets.

The Westwood Rockets won the team championship outdistancing 2nd place Culleoka.  Todd’s ran a time of 9:55 to capture 2nd place a mere 4 seconds off the race winner.  Louie Frazier(with a time of 10:04) finished in 3rd place followed by Brady Nugent(10:26) in 4th place.  Other Rocket runners were: Luke Beachboard(10:42) in 7th place; Connor Cravens(11:10) in 11th place; John Dobson(11:12) in 12th place; Keiton Sherrill(13:02) in 25th place and Jon Askins(13:14) in 27th place.

The Lady Rockets came in 2nd place behind Forrest.  Barrera paced the Lady Rockets with a time of 10:48 for the individual race win.  Rylea McNamara (12:23) finished in 9th place while Lizbeth Martinez(13:07) came in 17th place.  Other Lady Rocket runners were: Kailee Rossman(13:10) in 18th place; Mattalyn Goney(12:21) in 22nd place; Marisol Moreno(14:21) in 27th place; Leonor Moreno Rivera(14:35) in 28th place and Brookelyn George(14:40) in 31st place.

As 2017 draws to a close, Thunder Radio Sports looks back at some of the highlights of the calendar year for each of the 40 prep teams we follow and report on.  Today we look back at the year for the Coffee County Middle School Lady Raider soccer team.  Injuries and inexperience snapped a long string of conference title game appearances for the Lady Raiders in 2017.  The highlight of the year did come on 8^th Grade Night as the Lady Raiders shutout White County 8 to 0.

Thunder Radio reported on their big 8^th Grade Night win in a story we published on September 19^th

Coffee County Middle School 8th grade soccer players and Coach Travis O’Kelley[Photo by Jodi Amado]

Coffee County got all 8 goals in the first half as Coach O’Kelley had the Lady Raiders stop shooting after the 18th minute.  Katie Cotton got a goal in the 4th minute unassisted and followed that up one minute later off an assist from Anna Amado.  Alexis Rayman added an unassisted goal in the 7th minute before Jayda Wright scored in the 9th minute off a feed from Haleigh Richardson.  Kelsey Brantley scored to make it 5 to 0 in the 14th minute off a pass from Cotton.  Ellie Fann notched a goal in the 15th minute after a feed from Ariana Hansen.  Wright added her second goal in the 16th minute on a free kick and Caitlyn Garrett added the 8th goal in the 19th minute with Brantley getting the assist

The win ups Coffee County’s record to 3 and 5 on the season and 2 and 3 in conference play.  The Lady Raiders travel to Harris on Wednesday night for a conference match with Harris.  Opening kick is scheduled for 5 PM at Shelbyville Central High School.

To download a copy of the broadcast, go to: http://www.thunder1320.com/downloads/

Pekka Rinne stopped 29 of 30 shots, and the Nashville Predators defeated the St. Louis Blues by a 2-1 final on Wednesday night at Scottrade Center. The victory comes as the Preds return from the Christmas Break and wipes out their three-game winless skid to overtake the Blues for first place in the Central Division with 49 points.

It’s the second time this season Nashville has gone on the road to defeat the Blues, allowing just one goal to their division rival over those two contests, not to mention starting off a stretch of three games in four days against Central opponents with a win.

“Just coming off those couple days, it’s tough; I don’t think you let your guard down on purpose, but maybe it takes a kick in the rear end to get going,” Predators forward Craig Smith said. “It’s not always going to be perfect, and I thought we dealt with it in a good fashion. We came in and made some corrections, [Rinne] stood on his head and gave us a chance to win the game.”

After withstanding an early flurry, it was Smith who redirected a Roman Josi shot past Jake Allen for his 13th tally of the season to give the Preds a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes of play.

Nashville doubled up that lead in the second stanza when Calle Jarnkrok one-timed a feed from Filip Forsberg and wired it over the shoulder of Allen for a 2-0 advantage.

Vladimir Sobotka ended Rinne’s shutout bid with less than seven minutes remaining in regulation, but that was as close as the Blues got to stealing a point, giving Nashville their 22nd win of the season.

Rinne was one shot through traffic away from his fourth shutout of the season, but it was exactly the performance the Preds needed from their ace to get them back in the win column.

“You don’t want to get stuck in those streaks,” Rinne said. “It can be really hard to get out of those. We talked about it before the game, and I think the break was a good timing for us. We had a little bit of a chance to just [sit] back and relax and spend some time with the families, but we knew coming into tonight it was a big game and we didn’t want to [lose] four in a row.”

Better Than Before:

With the way Craig Smith has been performing during the 2017-18 regular season, it was only going to be a matter of time before he made it official.

In the first period against the St. Louis Blues, Smith reached up to deflect Roman Josi’s point shot past Jake Allen. His 13th goal in his 35th game, the Preds 28-year-old forward officially bested the goal total he put forth in the 2016-17 season (12 in 78 games).

In a sense, the tally seemed to officially say Smith’s bounce-back campaign is officially a go.

“The most noticeable thing for me with Craig, from day one [of this season] is his work ethic and his relentless pursuit of the puck,” Nashville Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. “He’s turning things over and making things happen. Kevin [Fiala] is playing really well right now [on Smith’s line], the addition of Kyle Turris, all of that just adds to the mix of Craig having a strong start this year.”

Following three consecutive seasons with 21 or more goals, the winger saw his total fall to 12 last year. He’s not interested in seeing that happen again.

“His speed and his intensity on the ice is just unbelievable,” Josi said of Smith. “Every shift he’s out there, he works extremely hard and you can see it. He’s got a lot of speed, he’s going to those areas – like tonight, he gets a tip goal and he’s going to the front of the net, so he’s been unbelievable for us all year.”

First in the Central:

Nearing the halfway point of the season, St. Louis and Nashville have traded punches and turns atop the Central Division standings. On Wednesday, their second meeting of the season was again billed as an opportunity to sit in first in the division for at least a night.

“It’s a tough division, and it’s hard such a hard League,” Josi said. “It’s hard to win games, so we’re definitely pleased with being in the top, but it’s so tight. You can’t really look at the standings too much, you just have to focus on the next game… and we know that, so we’re going to keep working and keep getting better.”

The Blues and Predators finished third and fourth, respectively, in the Central last season and faced off in Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Nashville has never won a Central Division crown.

Notes:

Ryan Ellis (non-roster injury) participated in the team’s morning skate in St. Louis. Anthony Bitetto, Cody McLeod and Miikka Salomaki were scratched for Nashville in Wednesday’s game.

Filip Forsberg skated in his 300th career game Wednesday night in St. Louis.

The Predators begin a home-and-home series with the Minnesota Wild on Friday at the Xcel Energy Center before returning home to skate in their final contest of the 2017 calendar year.