Six Southland Bowling Teams Ranked in NTCA Preseason Poll
FRISCO, Texas – Six of eight Southland Bowling League teams earned spots on the National Tenpin Coaches Association 2017-18 Preseason Poll, the NTCA announced Wednesday.
Arkansas State tops the league selections with the No. 3 spot, followed by Vanderbilt at No. 4 and Sam Houston State at No. 5. Stephen F. Austin also earned a top-10 selection with the No. 6 ranking.
Monmouth and Tulane rounded out the Southland’s preseason poll selections at No. 13 and 17, respectively.
The Red Wolves were the top-performing team in the 2016-17 regular season, finishing in second-place at the Southland Bowling League Championship in Jonesboro, Ark. last March. Arkansas State finished last year’s season in a tie for fifth place in the NCAA Bowling Tournament and ended its season 86-38, the third most in program history.
A-State is set to return reigning Division I Player of the Year Jordan Richard along with seniors Haley Richard and Jadee Scott-Jones, who were Second and Third-Team All-American selections, respectively, a season ago. At the 2017 Southland Bowling Championship, Richard averaged a second-best 20.12 overall average through 90 frames The Red Wolves posted the highest overall team scoring average (20.276) in the 2016-17 regular season, led by Richard, who averaged 21.641 per frame through 1,176 frames bowled.
Arkansas State opens their season at the McKendree Bearcat Open in St. Louis, Mo., hosted by the defending national champions. The competition takes place Friday, Oct. 27, to Sunday, Oct. 29.
Vanderbilt, coming in at No. 4 in the preseason poll, put together an impressive backend of its season, returning through the consolation bracket after falling to Arkansas State in the third round to defeat the Red Wolves on their second meeting of the tournament to win the 2017 title. The Commodores headed to Baton Rouge for their 13th-straight NCAA appearance and fell to eventual national runner-up Nebraska in their semifinal meeting.
Vanderbilt is second to only Central Missouri and Nebraska (13 and 14, respectively) in all-time NCAA appearances, having won a national title in 2007 and collecting runner-up finishes in 2011 and 2013. Vanderbilt returns four starters from last year’s squad, including first-team All-American and national Rookie of the Year Maria Bulanova and junior Kristin Quah, a two-time All-America honoree. Other returning veterans with significant time in the lineup include senior and reigning Southland Tournament Most Valuable Bowler Katie Stark, junior Jordan Newham and sophomores Emily Rigney and Adel Wahner. The Commodores lone graduation loss was Giselle Poss, another VU All-American and a four-year fixture in the lineup.
Vanderbilt’s first competition of the season is the Brunswick Bearcat Open from Oct. 27-29 in Fairview Heights, Ill.
Sam Houston State, earning the No. 5 preseason spot, finished the 2016-17 season ranked second in the Southland, falling to eventual tournament champion Vanderbilt in the second round. The Bearkats competed in their sixth NCAA championship in seven years as a four-seed last season, where they earned wins over Farleigh Dickinson and Arkansas State before falling to eventual national champion McKendree.
The league’s third-highest overall regular season scoring team (19.485, 5400 frames) are 11-8 all-time in the NCAA tournament. Junior Heather Penatzer has paced Sam Houston State’s regular season scoring (20.254, 2050 frames) – ranking sixth in the Southland. She returns for her senior season in 2017-18. The Bearkats must fill the gap left in the wake of Janine Kuwahara’s graduation. The Davao City, Phillipines native was a four-year veteran of the NCAA tournament with the Bearkats and averaged a Southland tournament-best 20.27 scoring average last season.
Stephen F. Austin, the preseason No. 6, finished with a 3-2 record in the Southland tournament last season, dropping its opening round match against Monmouth before winning three straight in the consolation bracket over Louisiana Tech, Sam Houston State and Tulane before falling to eventual champion Vanderbilt. SFA earned its third-straight trip the NCAA Championship, ending the 2016-17 season ranked No. 7 nationally after bowing out with a pair of 4-3 losses to A-State and Maryland Eastern Shore. The team then reached the semifinals of the United States Bowling Congress (USBC) Intercollegiate Team Championships, its best finish at the national tournament since 2012.
The Ladyjacks return a total of seven letter winners from a year ago, including three-time NTCA All-American First Team honoree senior Stephanie Schwartz (Racine, Wis.), who recently claimed four gold medals at the Pan American Confederation Youth Championship for USBC Junior Team USA.
SFA first heads to Kenner, La., for the Allstate Sugar Bowl Collegiate Invite on Oct. 20-22 to open its 2017-18 season.
Monmouth comes in at the No. 13 spot after finishing last season as the Southland’s fifth-best team. The Hawks upset No. 4 Stephen F. Austin in the opening round of the Southland tournament before falling to No. 6 Tulane in their consolation match.
Monmouth returns one of the highest scoring players in the league from last season in senior Jackie Evans, who ranked seventh in overall individual scoring average in the regular season (20.253) and was named to the NTCA All-America Third Team. The Hawks aim to fill a gap left by the graduation of another top scorer in Kaitlyn Reth, who posted a fifth-best 19.95 overall average at the 2017 Southland championship.
Monmouth starts the 2017-18 campaign at the Hampton Roads Invitational, hosted by Norfolk State in Chesapeake, Va., on Oct. 21-22.
Tulane rounds out the Southland selections at No. 17. The Green Wave posted a 1-2 record at last season’s league tournament as a six-seed, falling to Vanderbilt in its opening match before upsetting No. 5 Monmouth in the consolation bracket. The team capped its season with a loss to No. 4 SFA in the following matchup.
Tulane opens its season at the Allstate Sugar Bowl Collegiate Invite on Oct. 20-22 in Kenner, La.
2017-18 NTCA Preseason Poll
| Rank |
Team (First-place votes) |
Points |
Previous |
| 1. |
McKendree |
1,360 |
1 |
| 2. |
Nebraska |
1,212 |
2 |
| 3. |
Arkansas State |
1,174 |
4 |
| 4. |
Vanderbilt |
1,152 |
3 |
| 5. |
Sam Houston State |
1,066 |
5 |
| 6. |
Stephen F. Austin |
936 |
7 |
| 7. |
Maryland Eastern Shore |
922 |
6 |
| 8. |
Farleigh Dickinson |
810 |
8 |
| 9. |
Sacred Heart |
717 |
9 |
| 10. |
Central Missouri |
706 |
12 |
| 11. |
Wisconsin |
668 |
11 |
| 12. |
Delaware State |
645 |
10 |
| 13. |
Monmouth |
465 |
13 |
| 14. |
Saint Francis (Pa.) |
446 |
14 |
| 15. |
Adelphi |
373 |
15 |
| 16. |
LIU Brooklyn |
358 |
17 |
| 17. |
Tulane |
330 |
16 |
| 18. |
North Carolina A&T |
274 |
18 |
| 19. |
UAB |
211 |
20 |
| 20. |
Prairie View A&M |
159 |
19 |
| 21. |
Saint Francis |
144 |
21 |
| 22. |
Franklin Pierce |
87 |
23 |
| 23. |
Norfolk State |
81 |
22 |
| 24. |
Youngstown State |
75 |
25 |
| 25. |
Duquesne |
70 |
NR |