New Jersey City University Athletics

Seven women’s bowling teams qualified for the NCAA National Collegiate Championship and four reached the NCAA Final Four (2004, 2006, 2008, 2010) but none of that would be possible without the 2003-04 squad—the first NJCU women’s team to ever qualify for an NCAA championship tournament.
 
NJCU went 66-38-1 to qualify as an at-large team for that year’s inaugural NCAA Tournament in Houston, Texas and shocked the sport by reaching the NCAA national semifinals before eventually finishing third in the country in a nail-biting David vs. Goliath match against the University of Nebraska broadcast on ESPN. NJCU eventually fell to the Huskers in game seven of the best 4-of-7 series, 4-3.
 
The team, coached by 2020 Hall of Fame inductee Frank Parisi and assistant coach Rusty Thomsen, included two current Hall-of-Famers— Eryn Cully and Jennifer Viens—Hall of Fame nominees Lisa Melchior, Kathleen Weissman and Christine Zsilavetz, alongside freshmen Lauren Banz and Tracey Evans.
 
The 2003-04 women’s bowling team is the first modern-era women’s team ever elected to the Hall of Fame. The only other women’s program inducted was the 1942 and 1943 Jersey City State College women’s fencing team, which won the National Intercollegiate Women’s Fencing Championships.

• Head Coach: Frank Parisi *
• Assistant Coach: Rusty Thomsen
• Assistant Coach: Kristy Zielinski Kearney `01
• Lauren Banz `08
• Eryn Cully-Bohleber `05 *
• Tracey Evans `07
• Jennifer Viens-Cicchi `05 *
• Lisa Melchior `04
• Kathleen Weissman `06
• Christine Zsilavetz `06

 
* Current individual Athletics Hall of Fame member