The Youngstown State bowling team will have its first road trip of the 2022-23 season this weekend as it travels to Long Island for the Second Annual DezyStrong Classic. The three-day tournament will begin on Friday, and it will be hosted by Adelphi University at Coram Country Lanes in Coram, N.Y.
YSU, which is coming off a runner-up finish at the MOTIV Penguin Classic two weeks ago at its home center, will be one of 18 programs competing in New York this weekend. All 13 of the Penguins' matches will be streamed live on the YSUsports YouTube channel, and results will be posted when they become available on the team's Twitter and Facebook accounts. Of note, there will be one continuous YouTube stream for each day this week instead of separate streams for each match.
Tournament Format
The DezyStrong Classic will follow the standard 13-match rotation this weekend at Coram Country Lanes with 10 matches of qualifying and three bracket matches. There will be five Baker matches on Friday beginning at 9:40 a.m., and total pinfall will determine the winners of each head-to-head match. Five traditional matches will follow on Saturday starting at 9:30 a.m. with pinfall again determining the winners. The total pins from the first 10 matches of the tournament will determine seeding for bracket play on Sunday, which begins at 8:45 a.m. The bracket matches will be contested in a best-of-seven Baker format.
Scouting the Field
Southland Teams: Louisiana Tech, Tulane, Vanderbilt, Youngstown State
Ranked Teams (NTCA Preseason Poll): #2 Vanderbilt, #4 Stephen F. Austin, #8 Louisiana Tech, #9 Youngstown State, #10 Fairleigh Dickinson, #11 Mount St. Mary's, #16 Sacred Heart, #17 Tulane, #22 LIU
Teams Also Receiving Votes: Adelphi, UAB, Saint Francis (Pa.)
Unranked Teams: Bloomfield, Bryant, Merrimack, Molloy, St. Anslem, St. Francis Brooklyn
Youngstown State will be one of four teams from the Southland Bowling League and one of nine ranked programs competing on Long Island this weekend. The Penguins, who were ranked ninth in the Preseason National Tenpin Coaches Association Top 25 Poll, join fellow top-10 ranked programs No. 2 Vanderbilt, No. 4 Stephen F. Austin, No. 8 Louisiana Tech and No. 10 Fairleigh Dickinson at the tournament. No. 11 Mount St. Mary's, No. 16 Sacred Heart, No. 17 Tulane and No. 22 LIU are also in the field, and Adelphi, UAB and Saint Francis U received votes in the poll and will be among the field. Bloomfield, Bryand, Merrimack, Molloy, St. Anslem and St. Francis Brooklyn round out the group of 18 teams competing.
YSU's Schedule
Friday - Five Baker matches beginning at 9:40 a.m.
- Molloy - Lanes 25-26
- Mount St. Mary's - Lanes 27-28
- LIU - Lanes 21-22
- Sacred Heart - Lanes 7-8
- Fairleigh Dickinson - Lanes 13-14
Saturday - Five traditional matches beginning at 9:30 a.m.
- Positional round - TBA
- Saint Francis U - Lanes 11-12
- Merrimack - Lanes 9-10
- St. Francis Brooklyn - Lanes 13-14
- Adelphi - Lanes 25-26
Sunday - Three best-of-seven Baker
Last Season at the DezyStrong Classic
Youngstown State competed at the inaugural DezyStrong Classic during the last weekend of October 2021, and it finished second to collect a runner-up trophy. The Penguins rallied from a low-scoring start to the tournament to qualify fourth, and they beat Stephen F. Austin and Tulane 4-0 in bracket play on the final day to advance to the championship match. Youngstown State dropped the title bout to Vanderbilt, 4-2.
Individually, Megan Grams averaged 209.80 to total 1,049 over five games to place fifth at last year's tournament. It was her second straight top-five finish and all-tournament team nod to begin the 2021-22 season. The Penguins had two additional bowlers finished among the top 12 in the field. Jade Cote placed eighth with a 1,015 total pinfall, and Emma Wrenn was 12th with a 990.
Recapping Last Week
Youngstown State had two bowlers finish in the top six individually, and the Penguins finished as the runners-up as a team at the 2022 MOTIV Penguin Classic, supported by Litwin Paint & Supplies, to open the 2022-23 season on Oct. 14-16. The tournament was held at the Penguins' home facility at Holiday Bowl in Struthers, Ohio.
YSU went 10-4 in head-to-head matches at the tournament, going 4-1 on each of the first two days and 2-2 on Sunday. The Penguins earned wins over No. 6 Arkansas State, No. 19 Morgan State, No. 20 Lewis and No. 21 Central Missouri at the tournament.
The Penguins jumped Arkansas State in the final match of qualifying on Sunday to move into the championship contest against Nebraska. The Penguins and Huskers split the first four games of the best-of-seven Baker match, but Nebraska took the final two games to win 4-2.
Individually, Kirsten Moore was named to the five-person all-tournament team with a fifth-place total of 1,701 pins over eight games. The junior from Tallmadge, Ohio, reached 185 in each of her games and had impressive totals of 248 and 249 on Saturday. Teammate Madyson Marx finished sixth with 1,694, just seven pins behind Moore, and Jade Cote was 16th with a 1,588 total.
Cote was in the anchor slot in 25 of the team's 31 Baker games at the MOTIV Penguin Classic, and Marx occupied that position in the other six. While seven of the nine members of the roster are returners, Youngstown State has a new look to the back end of its lineup. Emma Dockery and Emma Wrenn combined to throw 1,077 out of a possible 1,123 10th frames - or 95.9 percent - in Baker play over the last three seasons.
Scouting the Penguins
Youngstown State returns seven student-athletes from last year's team that finished as the runners-up at the Southland Bowling League Championship and advanced to the NCAA Regional in Lansing, Mich. YSU has been an NCAA Tournament participant in each of the past two seasons, advancing to the Final Four in 2021 and qualifying for Regionals in 2022, and it was in line to be considered for an at-large berth in 2019-20 before the pandemic shut down the season. Last year's squad had 48 wins over top-25 teams and shattered many school records, most notably previous school standards for season average in every format. The Penguins are slotted ninth in the National Tenpin Coaches Association Top 25 poll after finishing 10th in the final poll of 2021-22.
Returners for 2022-23 were YSU's top finishers at six of the nine regular-season tournaments last season. Sophomore Jade Cote averaged a school-record 205.13 in traditional play last season, and senior Megan Grams was just behind her with a 204.26 average. They both had a pair of top-10 finishes to their credit in 2021-22. Lyndsay Ennis, a member of Junior Team USA in 2022, and Cote were both named to the five-person NTCA All-Rookie First Team last season, and junior Kirsten Moore's performance at Junior Gold this past summer earned her a spot on the 2023 Junior Team USA. Junior Madyson Marx has been a primary member of the squad in each of her first two seasons and paced the country in Baker double percentage as a freshman, and sophomores Ellie Drescher and Madison Doseck have both made a load of progress as they prepare for their second seasons. Add in talented freshmen Hope Bunk and Hannah Miller, and head coach Doug Kuberski likes the potential of his team to make another postseason run at the NCAA Tournament in April.
Up Next
Youngstown State will be off the first weekend of November before having its first stretch of back-to-back tournaments to conclude the fall schedule. The Penguins will compete at the MOTIV Ladyjack Classic in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 11-13, and they'll bowl at the Hawk Classic in Millsboro, Del., on Nov. 18-20.
