Bowlers open season with SFA Saturday
10/20/2011 2:00:00 PM | Women's Bowling
The even again will be held at the International Bowling Training and Research Center in Arlington.
"The whole team can't wait to get started again and what better way to kick things off then with our tradition rivals, Stephen F. Austin," Sam Houston head coach Brad Hagen said. "We battled the Lumberjacks six times last year and came away winners each time. The challenge is to keep that string going."
In last year's "Piney Woods Shootout", Sam Houston took games in standard format by scores of 960-874 and 949-939 to put the Bearkats at 2-0 in NCAA Division I competition.
The SHSU bowling team rolled on to a season match record of 70 victories and only 42 losses. More than half of their wins came over squads ranked among the nation's top 20 and all but four of the losses were to ranked foes.
The season ended with Sam Houston becoming the first inaugural program to earn an NCAA Division I national tournament berth in the eight-year history of the event. The Bearkats were one of eight squads invited to the NCAA tournament in Detroit where they won two matches before being eliminated.
"We're looking for bigger and better things this year and it all starts with the first match," Hagen said. "All our returning players know about the rivalry with SFA and the new girls learned by attending the 'Battle of the Piney Woods' football game a couple of weeks ago."
Seniors Dana Galganski, Lisa MacAllister and Aida Sanchez will lead this year's team.
"The team can't wait to get the new season started," Galganski said. "Qualifying for the national tournament last year was exciting but this season our goal is to win it."
Sophomores Neishka Cardona and Kimi Davidson also return from last year's squad that participated in eight major national tournaments, each with fields made up of top nationally-ranked opponents.
Sam Houston won one tournament, placed in the top three in four others and finished no lower than eighth in any of their appearances. The Bearkats ended the year seventh in the final national women's bowling rankings and were ranked as high as No. 5 during the year.
Further strengthening the squad are two top recruits. Freshman Elise Bolton of Merritt Island, Florida, has earned numerous gold medals playing for the USA National Junior Team and last summer participated in international events for Team USA. Michelle Secours, a junior transfer from Bellarmine University brings a resume that includes 13 top 25 performances in 21 intercollegiate events as a freshman and sophomore.
Secours, a Brockport, NY, product learned of the Sam Houston versus Stephen F. Austin rivalry before school started.
"Michelle has a friend from New York who bowls for the Lumberjacks so they've been talking up the rivalry for quite a while," Hagen said. "The International Bowling Training and Research Center is a tremendous facility and the match really got us off to a great start last year. We're looking forward to getting things off to a good beginning again."
