The UW-Whitewater Women’s Bowling Team wrapped up the regular season at the Music City Classic. Whitewater would finish the weekend with a 6-7 record and end up finishing 14th in a field of 30.

The Warhawks opened up the weekend with a huge upset over No. 5 Stepehn F. Austin by a score of 979-975. Junior Rebecca Howard led the Warhawks with a 100% fill rate and close behind her was junior Rachel Nelson with a 90% fill rate. 

“We compete with D1, D2 and D3 schools and are competitive with all levels,” says Howard. “We can beat top 10 nationally ranked teams. We went into the SFA match ready to have high energy and be louder than them. We all wanted that win and left everything out there during that match.”

The Warhawks would drop their next match against No. 7 North Carolina A&T 1085-944. They were then able to bounce back in their next two games, winning both of them. But would end up losing their last game of the day to finish day one with a 3-2 record. 

Whitewater would struggle at the start of day two losing both games to very good teams facing No. 2 Vanderbilt and No. 25 Sacred Heart. But Whitewater would go on to win three straight with wins over Wagner, Tusculum and Monmouth to once again finish the day 3-2. Over that five game span sophomore Kelly Whipple averaged 205.8 and was ranked 25th.

Heading into the final day the Warhawks were 6-4 overall and were sitting in 12th place. Whitewater would face No. 19 Lincoln Memorial to start the day and end up losing despite winning leading in the match 2-1. In their second match the Warhawks would fall once again despite averaging 207 over the seven game series in which the Warhawks had a 3-1 lead. The Warhawks would also drop their next game and finish a disappointing bracket play with a 0-3 record.  

“We need to believe in ourselves and stay present. We need to remember to brush off the last shot if it wasn’t what we wanted and move on. It is such a mental game and we all need to stay present in order to achieve the goals we have set for ourselves,” says Howard. 

The Warhawks will now face their attention to the postseason as they will be competing in the USBC National Championship as well as potentially making the NCAA tournament. 

“I think we are in a really good position for the postseason. We are peaking at the right time and we need to use this momentum to push us to what I know we can do. We will succeed because of everyone’s fight and passion. We have worked all season long to get to this point and will use what we have learned in the past few months to push us to the top,” says Howard