By Tony Koziol
February 21, 2010
After posting a disappointing 2-12 record at the Shrewsbury Invitational, the Elmhurst College women’s bowling team was able to go 7-2 at the Warhawk Classic held in Whitewater, Wisconsin.
A bad start at the Shrewsbury Invite caused the ‘Jays to struggle early. They went 0-5 on day one in Baker matches, losing to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (882-955), the University of Central Missouri (860-1002), Arkansas State University (889-946), Valparaiso University (773-968), and Minnesota State University-Mankato (781-794).
On day two of the tournament, the Bluejays lost two Baker matches to Louisiana Technical University (732-906) and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (867-938). The Bluejays lost three more matches that day for a 0-5 record after losing to Nebraska-Lincoln (785-956), Central Missouri (790-915) and Arkansas State (734-809) in five-bowler matches.
Junior Alyssa Vogler bowled a 211 against Nebraska-Lincoln and sophomore Amanda Warwick bowled a 194 against Central Missouri.
The Bluejays finished the invite by posting a 2-2 record on the final day. The Bluejays were able to beat Minnesota-Mankato (873-872) and UW-Whitewater (880-834) but lost to Louisiana Tech (824-898) and Valparaiso (836-988).
Junior Sarah Paul bowled a 201 against Valparaiso. Sophomore Shannon Grimes bowled a 204 and Vogler bowled a 208 against Minnesota-Mankato.
Unlike the Shrewsbury Invite, the Bluejays had a better start to the Warhawk Classic with a 4-1 record on day one.
In the Baker matches, the Bluejays lost to Valparaiso (700-733) but were able to beat Minnesota-Mankato (765-678) and UW-Whitewater (747-708).
The Bluejays ended the day by defeating UW-Whitewater (904-878) and Minnesota-Mankato (939-787) in five-bowler matches.
Vogler and Warwick both bowled a 205 against UW-Whitewater. Grimes bowled a 208 against Minnesota-Mankato.
The Bluejays finished strong on the last day, going 3-1 to end the event. The
Bluejays lost their five-bowler match 891-924 to Valparaiso but were able to beat Valparaiso (785-740) in one of the three Baker matches as well as Minnesota-Mankato (710-701) and UW-Whitewater (754-732). The Bluejays finished second in total pinfall but had the best win-loss record at the Warhawk Classic.
Head coach Joel Southern said that it was good to see his team perform well against schools like Valparaiso, Minnesota-Mankato and UW-Whitewater, which are all ranked top-20 in the nation, at the Warhawk Classic.
“It was a great weekend for the team,” Southern said in an e-mail interview.
“We had solid performances out of everyone and each match it seemed like one person really stepped up and bowled very well.”
At 32-54 after the Warhawk Classic, the Bluejays’ win-loss record is not where it was last year when they went 66-45, but Southern thinks he has a top-20 team.
“We have been ranked there at times over the last couple of years, but our relative struggles earlier in the season have our record at a point where it’s tough to get votes,” Southern said. “As of the beginning of Feb., our strength-of-schedule was fifth in the nation, so we’ve generally been butting heads with great programs and we’ve competed well for the most part.”
The last competition for the Bluejays is the Morgan State University Invitational starting on Feb. 20 which gives the Bluejays a chance to have a good finish to the 2009-10 season. The Bluejays have no graduating seniors this season.
“You always want to finish strong, and I think we will,” Southern said before the event. “We have always had pretty good success at the Morgan State event because we usually play a number of teams out of this area. I hope we are able to continue our success out there.”