Sacred Heart University’s women’s bowling team has claimed the number 14 spot in the preseason power rankings. The National Tenpin Coaches Association selected these rankings.
According to lmurailspliter.com, The National Tenpin Coaches Association is comprised of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) coaches who sponsor women’s bowling.
“I was beyond excited when I found out about our national ranking. Our team worked so hard for this and I couldn’t be happier for us,” said senior bowler Skyler Mulligan-Brown.
According to the Sacred Heart athletic website, the team finished the 2019-2020 season with 61 wins and 36 losses throughout the season. The team also had a conference record of 13 wins and five losses in the Northeast Conference (NEC) which led the team to a regular season conference title.
Last year, the Pioneers ended the season at 14th in the nation.
Rebecca Kregling, women’s bowling head coach, said, “I was hoping we were 14th or 13th since we were ranked 14th in the final poll last season. The coaches ranking us there again was a complement to our program.”
Usually, the team’s season is during the fall, but due to COVID-19, it was moved to the beginning of February.
“The NCAA has allowed the bowling season to continue as normal. The season has been cut short by removing the first half of the fall session, which normally begins on Oct. 1, to six weeks in the winter session, which is usually an eight-week season from mid-January to mid-March,” said senior Colby Jones. “Some other schools may have tournaments running in January. We hope to be able to participate in them to have a little more time to compete before the end of the season.”
COVID-19 has impacted teams all over the country. Despite the pandemic, the Sacred Heart bowling team wants to make sure they are ready for the upcoming season and prove to everyone why they deserve the spot they are in now.
“This year we are really focused on developing our relationships with one another. Lots of team bonding. This is especially important since as of right now, we don’t have any competitions planned for this semester, so building our friendships will bring us together and give us a leg up when it comes time to actually compete,” said senior Rachel Bamford.
Bowling practice has also been impacted by COVID-19, especially since bowling alleys do not offer much space to spread out.
“Practice is strange. Our practices are usually team oriented; we have many people on the same pair, we play head to head games, etc. We haven’t been able to do that this year since we need to spread out, so it’s kind of sad to not be able to bowl as a team,” said Bamford.
The dynamic of the practices are done individually due to CDC regulations.
“We usually prepare at a much faster pace since we usually are competing mid-October. We have been practicing mostly with skill drills, individual video review and, this past week, individual scoring,” said Kregling on preparing for the season.
Bowling is an individual sport, but players still play for their team. The team’s energy and support can change the whole match.
“The girls have team dinner once a week, grabbing food and eating six feet apart but still being together. Anything that we can do to create relationships will help us next semester, especially since we cannot have a full team practice,” said Kregling.
Although this is an unusual season, the team is looking to move up the rankings to the number one spot.
“The main goal for this season currently is to get to know each other and prepare for next semester. When we can compete, our goal is to win conference championships and go to NCAAs,” said Jones.
