National champion Kats looking to future
9/18/2014 8:42:00 AM | Women's Bowling
The Sam Houston women's bowling team gathered Wednesday afternoon to take the squad's annual team and posed action shots for the coming 2014-15 season.
The photo shoot has marked the start of each new campaign for the four-year-old program but, as the Bearkats prepare for the bowling's fifth year, something is different.
This time the squad stands at the defending NCAA women's bowling national championships.
“Last year when we took the team picture, winning the national title was our goal, but it seemed a long way off,” junior Anna Groce said. “Now it's a reality.”
Last April, when Sam Houston defeated four-time former national champion Nebraska in the NCAA finals before a national TV audience on ESPN, head coach Brad Hagen summed up the squad's feelings.
“It was the dream from the beginning,” Hagen said. The players returning from the 2014 championship squad agree.
“When I was 16, I told my parents I wanted to be a national champion,” Groce said. “Now we are. We players coming back from last year know we have to be the leaders this year. It was really fun winning one national title. Our goal now is to win two.”
Groce, Erin Brown, Janine Kuwahara and Becca Pittzer all played major roles in the Bearkats' championship victory in Cleveland and the team's 96-47 overall record that earned Sam Houston the No. 1 spot in last year's final women's bowling rankings.
“We can celebrate what we did but right now our focus is on what's to come,” Brown said. “Right now, we're looking to the future. We have four new people on the team. We're a completely new team. We're looking at what we can do this semester.”
Bowling season begins October 17-19 when the Bearkats compete at the Tulane Invitational in Kenner, La. The SHSU bowlers will participate in four tournaments in November, traveling to Hackensack, New Jersey; Valparaiso, Indiana and Lincoln, Nebraska for events and hosting the annual TRACK Kat Klash in Houston November 21-23.
“A big part of what we're been doing now is just trying to spend time together and getting to know each other,” Brown said. “We're focusing a lot on getting to know each other and learning how we can work together as a group.”
New players joining the team include Carrie Hopkinson, Heather Penatzer, Emily Notebart and Stephanie Zavala.
“We're very excited about what the new girls will be bringing to the team this fall,” Hagen said. “Everyone is going to play a part in making this team successful.”
