The season ended one day too early for the Belleville East girls bowling team, but the Lancers still accomplished a lot.
At the IHSA state tournament, held Feb. 11-12 at Cherry Bowl in Rockford, East finished 13th among 24 teams with 5,564 pins and a team average of 185.5. But DeKalb (5,641 pins, 188 average) earned the 12th and final qualifying spot for the second day of bowling. The Lancers did have two bowlers advance to Saturday as individuals, with junior Jessica Kowalski (199.3 average) and senior Courtney Brown (196) placing 38th and 47th, respectively.
"Friday was a little frustrating because, throughout the day, we had opportunities where we could make up some pins," East coach Gene Barrett said. "The shot was kind of difficult, but nothing we haven't seen before.
"The girls kept trying and never gave up. We were fortunate enough to have two girls move on and one other girl, Breanna Fowler, missed by just 22 pins."
At the Alton Sectional, held Feb. 5 at Riverboat Lanes, East won the team title with a score of 5,463, while Cahokia was second at 5,309. Brown tied eventual state champion Natalie Goodman of O'Fallon for the individual title with 1,228 pins.
"From the beginning of the season, the girls had one goal and that was to get back to state," said Barrett, whose squad finished 19th in 2010. "We started strong and won our first five matches, then we lost three close matches (to Belleville West, Collinsville and O'Fallon) and had a tie against Alton. That's when I started getting a little leery about our chances."
Barrett's solution was to put the Lancers into postseason mode.
"After eight matches, even though we had six more matches to go, I requested the bowling center (Bel-Air Bowl) to put out some tough lane conditions for us," Barrett said. "It was a mix of different conditions and we kind of rotated them through. When the sectional came, the girls were able to adjust very quickly. When they moved inside, they were in the pocket and they stayed there all day."
For the most part, the girls were pleased with East's performance at state.
"We didn't place at the top of the tournament, but we worked hard all four years and to go back to state again this year, it meant a lot to the seniors," Kayleigh Marks said.
"It wasn't so hard to take as it was last year," Brown added. "We didn't really think we were going to make it to state this year because we didn't do as well during the regular season. Just going to state was kind of a miracle in our eyes."
At the sectional, the girls weren't familiar with the conditions at Riverboat Lanes.
"We didn't go in there with the attitude that we knew what the lanes were going to be like," said Fowler, whose season highlights included a 300 game and a 710 series. "It was pretty hard competition, but we kept our spirits up and did our team cheers. Bowling is a mental sport, too, and when you lose your focus, that's when everything goes downhill."
Team chemistry played a key role in East's success.
"We're disciplined to an extent," Marks said. "We have so much fun joking around with the coaches and with each other, but we really are a family. For the seniors, it's going to be hard going off to college next year. When November comes around, it will be like ‘what am I supposed to do with myself?'"
