By Samantha Burmeister
December 8, 2009
On Nov. 14 sophomore Amanda Warwick became the first Bluejay in Elmhurst College history to bowl a perfect game for the women’s bowling team.
While Warwick’s 300 could not propel the Bluejays past their losing record, her achievement will hopefully bring hope to the team who has not taken a tournament all season.
“We have definitely had a rough start to the season, but we have improved each tournament, and are really coming together as a team. We have overcome some challenges early in the season with hiring a new coach, and are constantly competing with division I and division II schools, so we are really trying to improve every tournament,” said junior Alyssa Vogler.
The team competed in the Big Red Invitational three-day tournament back on Nov. 5 in Omaha, Nebraska. The first day the Jays came up empty-handed posting a 0-4 record with losses to Prairie View A&M and three nationally ranked teams: Arkansas State, Valparaiso and Minnesota-Mankato.
The second day of the tournament proved to be no different for the women’s bowling team as they were still searching for their first win of the tournament. Again the crew finished the day 0-4 with losses against #2 Vanderbilt, #4 Central Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota-Mankato and Arkansas State. Some high scores for the day included junior Sarah Paul’s 228 against Vanderbilt and sophomore Shannon Grimes’ 208 against Arkansas State.
The team finally grabbed two wins the last day of the tournament against Valparaiso and Central Missouri by scores of 870-867 and 898-881 respectively. The team also dropped three more matches against Nebraska, Prairie View and Vanderbilt, posting a 2-3 overall record for the closing day of tournament. Tops high scores of the day included Alyssa Vogler’s 192 against Valparaiso, Shannon Grimes’ 192 against Vanderbilt and her 203 in the Nebraska match.
Overall the team formed a disappointing 2-12 record in the Big Red Invitational. “Our weakness is definitely reading the lanes and adapting to the break down. We often don’t make adjustments quick enough, which ends up hurting us in the long run, especially when we lose our mental game,” said Vogler.
The ‘Jays then competed in the two day tournament Crusader Classic in
Valparaiso, Indiana back on the 13 - 14 of Nov. The team posted a 2-6 record for the tournament at Valparaiso University but did have some individual highlights for their season so far.
Warwick’s perfect game against UW-Whitewater during the second day of the tournament helped the team snatch their second victory of the tournament as well as add a strong moral boost to the team.
The team also earned a victory against Adrian College in the opening day of the tournament. They suffered three losses during that first day of the tournament against UW-Whitewater, Valparaiso and Minnesota State-Mankato.
Along with the win against UW-Whitewater the second day of the tournament, the team dropped matches against Valparaiso and Minnesota State-Mankato, and Adrian College.
After the conclusion of this tournament, the team maintained a 9-30 overall record. One may wonder how the team is able to stay positive with those numbers. Well, it has been verified that maintaining a positive attitude has been a problem in past play.
“Our biggest flaw in the past years has been keeping a positive attitude. What makes bowling different from other sports is that it is a seemingly individual sport. You are the only one that can fix a particular execution flaw in yourself at any time, but when and how you do this impacts the rest of the team. We work well together because we work so closely in practice”, said junior Sarah Paul.
The team will continue to try to improve the little things in the game.
Head coach Joel Southern said, “the main things we need to do better are just improving our consistency on spares...and finishing matches. If you’re struggling, that’s usually the problem.”
The ‘Jays will compete in the Mid-Winter Classic on Jan. 15 through the 17.