In what was one of the biggest matches of the season, the Wayland girls’ varsity bowling team our Lady Wildcats showed everyone in the house at the Rock ‘N Bowl just what they are capable of.
The ladies, smarting from a loss at Zeeland last week, defeated Hudsonville Unity Christian, a perennial powerhouse on the lanes, 17-13.
The boys’ team, ever improving but green, lost 21-9 to the Crusaders.
In the girls’ competition, Baker #1, went to the Wildcats 176-123. The second Baker was lost 155-150, so they were up 6-4.
Match 1 found Wayland only taking two points. Haley Taylor with a 146 and Bella Harnish a 183 took their points, but they still needed many more.
“We found ourselves in a fight, as we were down 11-8,” said coach Eric Bottrall. “We needed to turn up our game. It was neck to neck for most of the game. We know a lot can happen in the ninth and 10 frames.”
Freshman Lauren Healy came through with a big 172 game, along with Bella Harnish with a superb 195, taking her second point of the evening.
“Bella had a great night, but that is no surprise to anybody. She is a great bowler.”
Finally, anchor Kadence Bottrall, only a freshman, was rolling good shots, but getting tapped repeatedly by the pesky 10 pin. When she thought she had adjusted for that, the 7 pin stared her down.
“Another small adjustment and she strung strikes the remainder of the game, as we have seen her do before, finishing with a evening high game of 226.”
The ladies are only a half a point out of first place. Unity Christian will have a big challenge keeping that first place, as it will yet face Zeeland and Middleville-TK, both teams capable of helping out the Lady Wildcats.
Boys’ coach Sherry Rybiski Miklusicak said, “I am really proud of the boys tonight. I felt they put up a good fight as they were in most of the games until the eighth and ninth frames.”
Wayland started taking the first Baker game 158-104. Unity took Baker two, 137-113, and the ‘Cats were in a familiar Baker lead, 6-4.
“We have struggled in match one all year,” Miklusicak said. ”That will be our next goal. As usual, the opposing team came out on fire and once again we didn’t maintain our tenacity in match two. We have to learn that a team doesn’t necessarily stay hot in both matches.”
Highlight in match one was Alan Beggs’ 232 game, taking his point along with Jordan Fitzgerald and Wayland was down only 13-8.
“We still could pull this off in match two,” the coach said. “We hung pretty tight the entire game until the tenth frame. A couple of matches were lost by just a spare.”
Taking the only point this match was Jordan Fitzgerald for his second point of the evening.
