The Wayland girls’ varsity bowling team lost to Zeeland for a second time this season Wednesday, 23-7, and the boys’ squad lost by the same score.

The Lady Wildcats, ranked No. 5 in the state-wide Division 2 poll, now are 13-2-1 for the season overall and both losses have come at the hands of Zeeland, the Chix and Dux combined.

“Zeeland is just a tough team to face!” said coach Sherry Miklusicak. “Their team is a combination of Zeeland East and West and they are disciplined bowlers with good fundamentals.”

The evening started in the right direction as the first Baker game was taken by Wayland 176-146. Zeeland came back with a commanding 200–165 win in the second Baker, giving the Chix/Dux total pins and a 6-4 advantage.

“I was confident our girls would bounce back, but Zeeland bowled 139 pins over its average and we were 10 under.”

Erin Porteous had a fine score of 203 but was the only lady ‘Cat to claim her match point.

“Wayland has been a comeback team, so I knew they had a lot of work to do in game two,” Miklusicak said. “Usually when a team gets hot, there is a letdown the next game – not so tonight. Zeeland was still 114 pins over its average and we were over by 4 pins as well, but that was too much to make up.”

Taking their individual points this game were Marissa Bruinsslot with a 201 and Alicia Sweeney with a 173. Sydney Urben had a nice 196 game but still lost her point.

“Their coach, Bill Holbrook, had told them when you are at the top… other teams will be out to beat you!” Miklusicak said. “Well now we will have to be out to beat them as we will face them one last time at our O-K Gold/Green Conference Tournament in a couple of weeks.

The Wildcat boys, now 5-9-1 for the season, lost their first two Baker games and found them selves down 10-0 right away. Joe Laidler took the only point in the first set of individual games.

The highlight of the evening was taking total for the last set of individual games in which Laidler and Jordan Peters took their points. Jordan Peters was the high scorer for Wayland in both matches with scores of 170 and 176.

PHOTO: Joe Laidler