Kats to bowl for National Championship tonight
4/12/2014 12:09:00 PM | Women's Bowling
WICKLIFFE, Ohio – The Sam Houston State bowling team will compete for the national championship tonight at 7 p.m. as they take on the defending national champions Nebraska.
The Bearkats, who entered the weekend as the No. 7 seed in the tournament, have advanced to their first championship in three attempts at the NCAA championships.
In the previous two appearances, the Kats couldn't manage a win during the Friday double-elimination play, going 0-2 in 2011 in their inaugural season and then 0-2 last season. But on Friday, the Bearkats opened the day with a win against No. 1 Maryland Eastern Shore and never looked back, going 3-0 on the day to get to the finals.
"It hasn't settled in yet, to be honest," senior Neishka Cardona said. "We all did a great job as a team. We did our job. We stayed clean. We filled frames and we just stayed together. We were saying 'we just need two good frames from everyone.'"
The Bearkats will be facing a Nebraska team that is familiar with the position they are in. The Cornhuskers have advanced to the finals five times, winning on four occasions, including last year's win over Vanderbilt. Bill Straub has been at the helm of the program for all four titles
"Coach Straub is a good friend. He's a great mentor and what they do works," Hagen said. "At the end of the day, we're going to go in and play our game.”
The Cornhuskers entered the championship as the No. 2 ranked team in the country according to the NTCA coaches poll. The two teams have faced each other twice this season in the team best of seven format they will bowl on Saturday night, with the teams splitting the two matchups.
They first met on January 23 at the Arkansas State Mid-Winter Invitational with the Kats taking a 4-2 victory. A week later the two met again in Arlington with the Cornhuskers taking a narrow 4-3 victory. Nebraska and Sam Houston have met once in this format in the NCAA Tournament, with the Cornhuskers winning 4-1 in 2011.
“It's always a good match between them and us,” Hagen said. “We have a couple tricks up our sleeve and we'll see what happens. When you get on TV, it's anybody's ballgame. Whoever shows up emotionally and stays in the moment is going to come out ahead."
Saturday's match will be televised live on ESPNU at 7 p.m. and will re-air on Sunday on ESPN at 3 p.m. Senior Kimi Davidson said she is looking forward to the opportunity to bowl on TV.
“I've never been on TV before so I'm pretty excited,” Davidson said.
