Dawson Ullrich of South Pointe is The Herald’s latest Player of the Week (April 26)

Dawson Ullrich of the South Pointe soccer team has been voted The Herald’s latest spring sports Player of the Week.

The Stallions’ senior had a week to remember last week: He had two goals and one assist in a 3-0 win over region rival York on April 20. He then had two assists in a 2-0 win in overtime against Lancaster on April 23.

Ullrich signed in December to play soccer at Rhodes College.

Ullrich emerged as the winner of a particularly competitive week: There were 34,048 votes cast in this week’s poll. Ullrich earned 41% of the vote; Trevor Testerman of Catawba Ridge baseball earned 31.85% of the vote; and Jenna Ventureli of Clover softball earned 8.74% of the vote.

Congratulations to all the nominees. Meet the finalists and see full poll results below.

(Information published below includes statistics through April 24. Voting opened on Monday, April 26.)

Read about the finalists

TJ Barrett, York track: York finished second in a home meet with Catawba Ridge, Lancaster and Lewisville on April 21 — and Barrett was a big reason why: The Cougars’ senior won the triple jump (38-0) and was part of the winning 4x400-meter relay with teammates Mekayle Burns, Marvin Kearley and Robert McKinley. Barrett is in his first year as a track athlete.

Auri French, Fort Mill lacrosse: The Yellow Jackets’ junior attacker was huge in the first two rounds of the 5A state playoffs last week: French had one goal and four assists in a 15-6 win over Nation Ford on April 20. She then exploded for five goals and eight assists in a 17-1 victory over JL Mann on April 22 — a win that punched Fort Mill’s ticket to the Upper State title game. French has 44 goals and 52 assists for Fort Mill this season.

Nicky Glenn, Clover soccer: The Blue Eagles’ junior had a hat trick (three goals) to lead Clover to a 4-1 win over Fort Mill in a battle for first place in Region 3-5A on April 23. Glenn has eight goals for Clover this season.

Darby Grigg, Northwestern soccer: The Trojans’ sophomore forward accounted for five goals — notching two goals and three assists — in a 7-0 win over archrival Rock Hill on April 23. The Northwestern girls’ soccer team is 5-4 this season.

Justin Jackson, Northwestern tennis: Jackson earned the only win for his team in a loss to rival Rock Hill on April 22. The win arrived in dramatic fashion, too: The senior came back in a third-set tiebreaker — 6-2, 0-6, 10-7 — to win at No. 2 singles. Jackson, who’s shown admirable resilience this season and is 4-7 in singles’ play overall, is also a great student and is Northwestern’s senior class president, head coach Tim Hartis said.

Tessa Kramer, Nation Ford track: The Falcons’ senior ran a personal-best 1:06.17 to win the 400-meter hurdles at the Bob Jenkins Coaches’ Classic Elite meet at Byrnes High on April 24. Earlier in the week — at a region meet on April 19 — Kramer also ran a personal-best 26.87 to win the 200-meter dash and won the 400-meter hurdles.

Kimberly Polk, York Prep soccer: The Patriots’ senior pulled off the rare feat of having three goals in the field and three saves as the goalkeeper in the same game to lead York Prep to a 6-1 win over North Central on April 23. Polk scored three goals in the first 55 minutes of the game and then transitioned to goalkeeper, where she performed well, too.

Connor Rasmussen, Fort Mill baseball: The Yellow Jackets’ junior went 5-for-9 with a double, two home runs, five runs scored and nine runs batted in as Fort Mill completed a three-game sweep of Gaffney this week. His best single-day performance? On April 21, Rasmussen went 4-for-4 with two home runs and eight RBI in a 19-4 victory. Rasmussen is committed to playing baseball at East Carolina — currently a top-10 team in the nation — and is batting .350 with two home runs and 17 RBI for Fort Mill (12-8) this season.

Trevor Testerman, Catawba Ridge baseball: The Copperheads’ junior outfielder had a big week at the plate: Testerman went 8-for-12, notching three doubles, a home run, six RBI and five runs scored as Catawba Ridge swept Indian Land in a three-game series. And that home run? That was the first grand slam in the Catawba Ridge baseball program’s two-year history. Testerman is batting .441 with 16 RBI and 16 runs scored for Catawba Ridge, which clinched a playoff berth last week.

Dawson Ullrich, South Pointe soccer.

Jenna Venturelli, Clover softball: The Blue Eagles’ senior had seven hits — including two home runs and six runs batted in — as Clover beat Buford, Gaffney and Nation Ford this week. Venturelli is batting .476 with two doubles, one triple, four home runs and 27 RBI for Clover this season.

See full results here

If you can’t view the poll on your mobile device, click here to refresh the page.

How to nominate

Player of the week awards highlight high school players with outstanding performances. The goal is to recognize all athletes — both the most accomplished and the underrated or underappreciated players. If you want to suggest someone to be included in the ballot in future weeks, send an email to Jay Edwards at edwardswork23@gmail.com. Please include the athlete’s name, school, class and applicable game performance statistics. Coaches must be willing to verify information.

This story was originally published April 26, 2021 at 1:59 PM.

Alex Zietlow

The Herald

Alex Zietlow writes about sports and the ways in which they intersect with life in York, Chester and Lancaster counties for The Herald, where he has been an editor and reporter since August 2019. Zietlow has won nine S.C. Press Association awards in his career, including First Place finishes in Feature Writing, Sports Enterprise Writing and Education Beat Reporting. He also received two Top-10 awards in the 2021 APSE writing contest and was nominated for the 2022 U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s Rising Star award for his coverage of the Winthrop men’s basketball team.