On Saturday, Jan. 31 and Sunday, Feb. 1 the Lady Panthers bowling team traveled to the Louisiana Tech Invitational Tournament in Ruston, La. Kristina Sadler, sophomore social work major, said, “I believe that the potential was there, but we just didn’t initiate it.”
The Lady Panthers initially sparked a great win in an individual team match against Louisiana Tech before the tournament began on Saturday winning that match 970 pins to 897 pins. Junior Misty Dawson led the Panthers in the match with a great 258 pin game.
The Lady Panthers carried that success into the first day of the tournament with another great performance, defeating the eventual tournament champions, Jackson State, in the first match 967 pins to 961 pins. The team was led by freshman LeJewlia Lewis who had a great game knocking down a total of 233 pins. “We could have done way better,” said Lewis, “We did good but the other teams were getting big breaks.”
After a frustrating loss to Louisiana Tech, in the next match, the Lady Panthers bounced back to defeat Grambling State 956 pins to 944 pins. The Lady Panthers would eventually finish the first day of competition as the third seed based on total pin count.
The Lady Panthers then began the second day of competition in a best four out of seven game Baker format competition. During their first contest, the team dropped a match to GSU with a loss in the sixth game, while the Lady Bulldogs from Louisiana Tech barely squeezed by, beating the Lady Panthers in the last game of seven to win the match. Junior Terrie Mitchell said, “I felt that we did as well as the other teams but we could have done better at Baker.” Junior Melissa Reeves said, “We didn’t take advantage of certain games that we should have won and certain spares that we should have made and that cost us in the end.”
The Lady Panthers did, however, place two members on the five member All-Tournament Team at the Invitational Tournament. Lewis, who finished with a very nice 200.3 pin per game average, and Misty Dawson, who ended the tournament as the top performer with an excellent 216.3 average, both represented Prairie View A&M on the team.
Even though the team is finished with SWAC competition they will now prepare for another match scheduled to take place in Houston on the campus of Texas Southern University. The competition, which will be another tough stpe in the progression of the team, is set to start at 10 a.m. on Feb. 7.