HARAHAN, La. – Jacksonville State was just a bit better than Youngstown State throughout the Conference USA Bowling Championship match on Sunday afternoon, and the school's first-ever CUSA title is headed home with the Gamecocks because of it.
The top-ranked and top-seeded Gamecocks (97-23) grabbed an early lead and held on throughout both the traditional and Baker portions of a 2-0 win over the third-ranked and No. 3 seed Penguins. The win landed Jax State a conference title in its first season as a program.
"Very Humbling and very cool," head coach
Shannon O'Keefe said. "It's been an awesome year with lots of firsts and history in the making. I'm just very humbled."
Jax State got contributions across the board throughout the tournament in which they had to defeat the No. 13, No. 2 and No. 3 ranked teams in the nation to win CUSA's first-ever bowling title. Three Gamecocks earned All-Tournament honors – graduate seniors
Maranda Pattison,
Crystal Elliott and
Kayla Smith, who was named the tourney's Most Valuable Bowler.
Smith was quick to praise the work of her team and, when asked about the importance of this weekend's win, she described it as a stepping stone on the Gamecocks' quest for a National Championship.
"For me, specifically, this is just a stepping stone for the thing that we're trying to win at the end," Smith said. "It's really cool that we're coming to a new conference and definitely a harder conference than we've ever been in before. But for us this is a stepping stone to the end goal."
The Gamecocks took control of the match early on, holding off a late Penguin charge to win the Traditional round. Jax State took out 100 more pins than YSU in a 1,081-981 win. Smith led the Gamecocks with a 247, followed closely behind by a 244 and a 238 from fellow Elliott and Pattison. Senior
Isabel Allen added a 179 and graduate senior
Rebecca Hagerman a 173.
Hagerman, freshman
Dannielle Henderson, Pattison, Smith and Elliott got the Gamecocks off to a hot start in Baker play with a 267 that built an early 33-pin lead after the first game. The Penguins answered in game two, however, using a 244 to Jax State's 217 to pull to within six pins.
The Penguins didn't make it easy for Jax State to close them out in Baker play, posting five scores over 200 and a total pinfall of 1,112 pins. The Gamecocks were better, though. They opened with a 267 and never gave up the lead, following with scores of 217, 227, 242 and 233 to post a 1,186 and walk away with the CUSA Championship Trophy.
After winning the nine-team tournament in which all competing teams came in ranked in the top 15 in the nation, both O'Keefe and Smith talked about how tough the newly formed bowling conference is and how it can prepare you for a national title run.
"This weekend's competition was absolutely like what you see in a national championship," Smith said. "The last two matches that we bowled were against the No. 2 and No. 3 ranked teams in the country, so it could be the teams that we bowled against in our conference again."
"Youngstown is most certainly one of those teams that can go toe-to-toe with us and strike just as much as us, and they were most certainly pushing us," O'Keefe said. "We just kept reminding the girls to stay calm and to drift off into our own little world and just keep executing."
The Gamecocks will now turn their focus on a run at a national title and will learn their regional destination on Wednesday during the NCAA's Bowling Selection Show. The show will air online at NCAA.com at 3 p.m. CT.
