Mt. Pleasant - May was a very good month for the spring sports athletes at Oceanside Collegiate Academy.
OCA came away with state titles in boys and girls soccer, boys tennis and girls lacrosse, with the baseball team and golf team in contention to win titles by the end of the month.
Oceanside Collegiate’s girls lacrosse team won their first-ever state title, 12-6 over Lucy Beckham, using two quick scoring spurts to pull away. The Landsharks finish with a 17-3 record while the Bengals finish at 14-6.
Sophomore Teagan Scott tallied five goals for the Landsharks while senior Madison Mayer added three scores. Ashlyn Key scored twice as well, as did Kate Weston.
“I think being here last year helped us, no doubt,” coach Ashley McCulloch said. “Everything was familiar for us, same sideline, same locker room. We brought our runner-up medals from last year to motivate us. To know they worked so hard to get this done is a great feeling for them.”
The girls soccer program won its third consecutive state championship, defeating Christ Church. 3-1, in the Class AA state finals at Irmo High School.
Oceanside won the last two Class AAA state titles before reclassifying to Class AA this school year. The Landsharks finish this season with a 14-4 record.
“I knew we had potential but we had a lot of youth,” coach Mark Meyer said. “This team did a good job of improving every day. I knew we had the potential to do this if we put it all together.”
Despite controlling most of the action, the Landsharks went into halftime in a scoreless tie. The hard work put into the first half yielded positive results in the second half.
Freshman Kate Schmidlin got the first tally of the day 15 minutes into the second half. With just 15 minutes remaining in the contest, junior Lily Lyman made it 2-0. Freshman Ellie Petry put the game on ice with a goal late in the game.
“I think our conditioning was the difference,” Meyer said. “We felt coming into the second half they were more tired and we were fresher.”
The OCA boys team capped an undefeated season with a 2-0 win over Gray Collegiate. The Landsharks finish the 2023 season with a 14-0-1 record and won their last 13 contests. Oceanside Collegiate allowed just three goals all season.
The Landsharks dominated the contest from the outset, showing a clear advantage in team speed. It took about 10 minutes to take the lead when Jacob Cromedy scored on a left-footed laser for a 1-0 lead.
Nine minutes into the second half, Oceanside went up 2-0 on a goal from Ethan Duncan.
Boys tennis wins third straight state title
The boys tennis team breezed to a 6-0 win over Academic Magnet to claim their third consecutive state title. The Landsharks finish the season with an 11-2 record, losing twice to SCISA state power Hilton Head Prep.
“The boys were ready to go today,” OCA coach Shawn Harris said. “Even though we had beaten Magnet twice, we knew they were a good team. We went into it feeling fairly good about our chances but you have to play well. We did today.”
Davin Ruhotina, a junior, won 6-2, 6-2 at No.1 singles. Senior Garrett Brooks won 6-2, 6-3 at No. 2 and freshman Luke Skillman won 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3 singles.
Freshman Helms Sander won 6-1, 6-3 at No. 4 and junior Will Ramey took the win over No. 5, 1-6, 6-1, 11-9 in a third-set tie-breaker.
The No. 2 doubles team of seniors Bryson Harple and Justice Gait notched a 7-5 tie-breaker win.
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