Teams framed for success

By By Jason Elmquist

Monday, February 7, 2005



The men’s basketball team wasn’t the only Kansas team to return from Nebraska with a victory over the weekend. The KU men’s bowling team won its fourth tournament of the season at the Maverick/Husker Classic in Omaha, Neb.

The men had led throughout most of the first day but fell to fourth after their last play on Saturday. Down 189 pins to Lindenwood University, the men “hung tough,” said senior Rhino Page, to come out with a 46-pin margin of victory against Nebraska-Omaha.

“We were able to persevere and pull through,” Page said.

Page finished first overall at the tournament with a 220-pin average. Junior Zach Taylor, a transfer from Nebraska, earned his first top-five finish of the season with a third-place pin average of 206.

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“Zach is a key player. He gives the reads to the team,” Page said. “When we switch lanes, he tells us what we need to do. Without him on the team, we don’t make it.”

Despite the tournament being the smallest that the men have played at this year, said coach Michael Fine, the competition was tough. Three other top-15 teams on the collegebowling.com ranking system competed at the tournament.

“It was our smallest tournament, but it was not a cakewalk,” Fine said.

The women’s team also went up against a small field, as it finished second in a field of five yesterday.

The women were able to shave 14 points off the difference between them and tournament winner, Lindenwood University.

Senior Kelly Zapf took the top spot overall on the women’s side with a pin average of 204.

The teams’ second place finish is its third of the season. The team continued its stretch of top-10 finishes in all tournaments this season. While it has been close all season, it has yet to clinch a tournament victory.

“There needs to be another step to win a tournament,” Zapf said. “We have to be good with our spare shooting and our first shot, making sure we leave no splits or other tough shots.”

Zapf also said that they have let bad frames linger during the next few frames, and by the time they get motivated and back up, they have fallen out back from the leaders. One woman bowler who does not seem to be fazed at those times is freshman Natalie Bennett.

Bennett picked up her first top-five finish of the season, as she finished in fifth place with a 185 pin average.

The play of Zapf and Bennett along with the rest of the bowlers on the women’s team has “positioned them well” for the post season, Fine said.

“Lindenwood and Omaha are going to be teams we’ll battle against to get to the national championship,” Fine said. “We established that we are better than Omaha and that we can compete with Lindenwood.”

The men’s and women’s teams will finish the regular season Feb. 19-20 at the Hoosier Classic in Indianapolis. After that they will have IBC sectionals on March 19 to 20.

Edited by Laura Francoviglia

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