HOUSTON, Texas - The OC Women's bowling team traveled to Houston, TX to compete in the Track Kat Klash hosted by Sam Houston State University.

Friday 11/3/2023

Competition consisted of five 5-game baker matches with total pinfall deciding the winner. OC faced a tough schedule on Friday with 3 of the 5 opponents ranked in the top 25 pre-season coaches poll. OC would finish with a 2-3 record on day one bringing home wins over Southern University and #21 Lincoln Memorial. OC's three loses on day 1 were to Lewis, #4 North Carolina A&T, and #13 Newman. OC had a total pinfall of 4647 finishing in 10th place on day one.

Saturday 11/4/2023

The second day of competition consisted of five traditional 5 person team game matches. OC faced a tough schedule again on day two with 3 of the 5 matches against teams ranked in the top 12 of the pre-season coaches poll. OC finished day two with a 3-2 record with wins over Prairie View A&M, Texas Southern, and #9 Maryville. The two losses came from #3 Nebraska and #12 Maryland Eastern Shore. OC finished the two days of qualifying in 8th place with a 5-5 record and a total pinfall of 9469. 

Junior, Shelby Davis, had a great weekend on the lanes leading the team in scoring on Saturday. Davis rolled games of 187, 203, 245, 257, 197 for a total pinfall of 1089. Davis' performance landed her in 5th place individually earning All Tournament Team honors. Davis is the second person to earn ATT honors in an NCAA event for the OC Eagles. Davis would continue her fantastic bowling coming in clutch for the team in a lot of big moments bowling in the anchor position on Sunday.

Sunday 11/5/2023

The third and final day of competition consisted of bracket matchplay. The matches are best 4 out of 7 baker games. In round one, OC would get the chance to avenge their day two loss against Maryland Eastern Shore. The match was back and forth with both teams finding a rhythm early. OC would win game 1 before dropping games 2 and 3. OC rebounded nicely winning games 4-6 to take the match 4 games to 2.

In the second round, OC would get the chance to avenge another loss from earlier in the tournament against #13 Newman. The first game was closely contested with OC losing 181-179. OC would then drop games 2 and 3 falling behind in the match 3-0. OC won game 4 to extend the match before losing a close game 5 by a score of 212-194. 

In the final match of the day OC would get yet another chance at redemption against Lewis. OC started the match strong rolling games of 203 and 205 to take the first 2 games of the match. OC would also win game 3 of the match with a score of 170-159. Lewis found their stride in game 4 putting up a solid 225 game to OC's 169 to extend the match. Game 5 would be tightly contested with Lewis coming away with a second win with a score of 190-186. Lewis got on a roll again in game 6 rolling a score of 234 to OC's 135 forcing a deciding game 7. OC would answer the call with another tightly contested game holding on for the win 180-172.

Thoughts from Head Coach James Hayes

Overall not our best weekend, as we struggled with execution.  On the positive side, Shelby Davis had a great weekend leading us all weekend and making the All-Tournament team in a tough field. We will now regroup over the break and get ready for Vegas in early January.   

Up Next

This event wrapped up the fall semester for the women's bowling team. OC will be back in action January 8-10 at the Stormin' Blue & White Classic hosted by Mount St. Mary's in Las Vegas, Nevada.