New Jersey City University Athletics

HOUSTON, TX…It would have been impossible to choreograph the script any better than this. The NCAA Women’s Bowling National Semifinal came down to the final frame in the final game of the best 4-out-of-7 series, with David nearly shocking the world, before being eliminated by the Goliath of collegiate bowling, the University of Nebraska, 4-games-to-3. With the loss, NJCU finishes third nationally in the inaugural women’s bowling national championship. It is the best NCAA finish of any team in University history, surpassing the two fourth-place results by the men’s basketball team in 1986 and 1992.

 

ESPN2 will televise the semifinal and championship on a one-day tape delay on Easter Sunday, April 11 from 1-2:30 pm. Nebraska advanced to the national final to face No. 1 seed Central Missouri State University.

 

NJCU, the No. 6 seed, advanced to the national semifinal by stunning intra-state rival Fairleigh Dickinson University, the fourth seed, 4-games-to-1 in the Final Four. All games were played under the baker format in which each of the five bowlers on a team will play two frames of a traditional 10-frame game. The event was at the Emerald Bowl in Houston.

 

In the national semifinal, NJCU was making its first national television appearance in any sport, and it was obvious from the start that the Gothic Knights were nervous under the bright ESPN lights. No. 2 seeded Nebraska, student-population 25,000, won the first baker game, 188-146, then decisively won game two, 245-140. By comparison, NJCU has a student enrollment of 4,458. The Knights entered the semifinal match with a 3-6 record against the Cornhuskers this season.

 

With the series outcome looking bleak, NJCU senior anchor ERYN CULLY (Medford, NY/Patchogue-Medford, NY) was the emotional leader of the team, and carried the team on her back, throwing three strikes in the 10^th frame of game three, to lift NJCU to a 222-211 win.

 

“This is the best thing I’ve ever been a part of,” said Cully, summarizing the emotions of the history-making tournament.

 

The fourth game was just as tight, and behind the bowling of junior CHRISTINE ZSILAVETZ (Avenel, NJ/Woodbridge), senior LISA MELCHIOR (Edison, NJ/Edison), and sophomore KATHLEEN WEISSMAN (Saddle Brook, NJ/Immaculate Heart Academy), the Gothic Knights evened the series at 2-2 with a 183-171 win.

 

Nebraska easily won the fifth game, 237-134, to gain a 3-2 series edge. But in the sixth game, the magic for NJCU continued. Trailing in the ninth frame, junior JENNIFER VIENS (Old Bridge, NJ/Old Bridge), who became the first bowler to ever roll a perfect 300 game in championship play on Thursday, got the entire crowd behind her team and gave NJCU the lead, when she converted an amazing 6-7-10 split for a spare, and Cully finished off the Huskers with a 200-184 win.

 

It came down to game seven, and it looked like NJCU was going to slay the giant. But leading in the seventh frame, NJCU missed a costly spare, and Nebraska took advantage, converting several strikes to move in front by several pins. Nebraska led 191-169, but left NJCU some life when junior Shannon Pluhowsky (Phoenix, NJ/Phoenix), one of the top women’s bowlers in the world, scored a strike on her first ball of the tenth frame but didn’t finish with a spare. NJCU had a shot to win if Cully notched a strike on her first ball. However, she cleared six with her first ball, finished with a nine on the frame, and Nebraska survived the amazing series, 4-games-to-3 with a 191-178 victory in the last game. It was the only close game of the afternoon NJCU did not win.

 

“I was a little nervous,” Cully emphasized in the post-game press conference. “When it first came out of my hand I knew it was left and I was just hoping to get lucky. I guess you can’t strike every time.”

 

“We beat them several times before,” said Viens. “We just wanted to get here [the national semifinal].

 

Our first obstacle was to beat FDU, who is a great team. But it wasn’t their turn. It was our turn. It was nice to bowl against Nebraska. They’re nice girls and they’re an excellent team. We gave them a run for their money. This is the biggest thing our school has ever done.”

 

“That’s an individual memory,” said Viens, when asked if the 300 game would be her brightest memory of the weekend. “My memory of the team is stronger. I wouldn’t even dream anything else.

 

Making this [semifinal] with this team is the best thing that’s ever happened to me in bowling.”

 

                When NJCU upset FDU in the first Final Four match by a 4-1 margin, the Knights received some unlikely fan support—from the four other teams eliminated on Friday (Southern University, Sacred Heart University, Maryland Eastern Shore, and Winston-Salem State University). NJCU, which had entered with a 4-8 record against FDU during the year, won the first game by three pins, 184-181, and the second game by 10, 194-184. After FDU claimed the third game, 199-185, NJCU again pulled out a tight win, taking game four, 203-197. The Gothic Knights closed out their rival in the fifth game, 191-180.

 

NJCU had the most difficult road to the national final, after falling to Sacred Heart, 4-0, in the opening round of the double-elimination tournament. But the Knights persevered, upending Maryland Eastern Shore, 4-0 in the second round to stay alive, before eliminated SHU in a return match, 4-games-to-1, to advance to Saturday’s Final Four.

 

“Eryn [Cully] came thru in the clutch all day,” said fourth-year Head Coach FRANK PARISI, a councilman in his hometown of Carteret, NJ, while speaking of about his two graduating seniors. “It just didn’t happen on the last shot. Lisa [Melchior] was the first ever recruit in the history of the team. She started this whole program. This has been a tremendous experience all year. We knew we had the talent and the camaraderie. And we took Nebraska, which has been a national power for years to the limit.”

 

GAME	NJCU	FDU
1	184	181
2	194	184
3	185	199
4	203	197
5	191	180

 

GAME	NJCU	NEB
1	146	188
2	140	245
3	222	211
4	183	171
5	134	237
6	200	184
7	178	191

 

GAME	CMSU	NEB
1	176	183
2	200	168
3	170	195
4	212	212
Roll-off	49	60
5	203	168
6	195	246

 

 

GAME	CMSU	NEB
1	131	170
2	208	160
3	190	185
4	150	239
5	197	210
6	173	215