Happiness is winning two conference championships in one day! We got to feel that happiness Sunday in the South Carolina Midlands as our women's tennis and softball teams took home Conference Carolinas titles in Sumter and Hartsville. It is awesome to win a conference title, two in one day is quite extraordinary. For our women's tennis team, the victory was old hat, their 7th straight title. This one took a little more effort though than the previous six. With two matches remaining on the court, both in the 3rd set, Erskine had to have a win in one of them to grab the title. Tessa Rheault's come from behind victory was more dramatic than any of the Fleet's previous titles under Coach Calhoun Parr.
The softball championship was on a different end of the spectrum. The Fleet had never won more than two games in the tournament so winning four straight was a first. Over the last few years Coach Alleen Hawkins has turned around the fate of our softball program, so we knew it was only a matter of time before the first-ever title came our way. Riding the dynamic duo pitching of sophomores Kelsey Spurrier and Heather Richey the Fleet made history and for a brief moment even made Coach Hawkins speechless.
It was a special day for our Fleet. As my daughter and I drove through Florence on Sunday evening we stopped to take care of my two great vices in life: Coke Zero and Krispy Kreme Donuts. In the past year Florence, SC has added a Newspring Church campus and a Krispy Kreme, proving Florence has a great movement of God going on! Anyway, the theme of Coke is "Open Happiness" while the theme of Krispy Kreme is "Happy All-Around." You can judge me for my vices, but with two conference championships, a dozen donuts, and 12 ounces of Coke Zero, Happiness ruled the day. Go Fleet!
