Bowling Steps Back Into Action This Weekend in Wisconsin

The Youngstown State bowling team will compete in tournaments on consecutive weekends to close out its fall schedule, beginning this Friday in Kenosha, Wis. The Penguins will bowl in the three-day MOTIV Ladyjack Classic, which is being hosted by Stephen F. Austin at Sheridan Lanes.

The Penguins will try to build on back-to-back runner-up finishes in their first two tournaments of the season. YSU opened the season with a second-place finish at its own tournament, the MOTIV Penguin Classic, and it set a school record with 12 head-to-head victories two weeks ago in another runner-up result at the Dezy Strong Classic.

All 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.

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Tournament Format

The MOTIV Ladyjack Classic will have a format similar to the MOTIV Penguin Classic that Youngstown State hosted to open the season. The first two days will follow the standard tournament format with five Baker matches on Friday and five traditional matches on Saturday. On Sunday, there will be three more Baker matches in the morning to finish qualifying and complete the Round Robin where each team will compete against all other 13 teams at the tournament. Teams will then be seeded for one best-of-seven Baker match to determine the final order of finish.

Scouting the Field

Southland Teams: Arkansas State, Stephen F. Austin, Valparaiso, Vanderbilt, Youngstown State

Ranked Teams (NTCA Preseason Poll): #1 McKendree, #2 Vanderbilt, #3 Nebraska, #4 Stephen F. Austin, #6 Arkansas State, #9 Youngstown State, #15 Maryville, #18 UW-Whitewater, #20 Lewis, #25 Newman

Teams Also Receiving Votes: Valparaiso

Unranked Teams: Carthage, Marian, North Central

Six of the top nine teams according to the National Tenpin Coaches Association Top 25 Preseason Poll will be at Sheridan Lanes this weekend. YSU will get its first look at top-ranked McKendree, and No. 2 Vanderbilt, No. 3 Nebraska, No. 4 Stephen F. Austin and No. 6 Arkansas State will join the ninth-ranked Penguins. Four additional ranked teams will compete: No. 15 Maryville, No. 18 UW-Whitewater, No. 20 Lewis and No. 25 Newman. Valparaiso, which received votes in the preseason poll, brings the number of Southland Bowling League teams in the field to five, and Carthage, Marian and North Central will also be in attendance.

YSU's Schedule

Friday - Five Baker matches beginning at 11:35 a.m. Eastern

Vanderbilt - Lanes 9-10
Valparaiso - Lanes 3-4
Marian - Lanes 17-18
Lewis - Lanes 21-22
UW-Whitewater - Lanes 11-12

Saturday - Five traditional matches beginning at 10:25 a.m. Eastern

Stephen F. Austin - Lanes 5-6
Maryville - Lanes 17-18
Newman - Lanes 3-4
Nebraska - Lanes 15-16
Arkansas State - Lanes 11-12

Sunday - Three Baker matches beginning at 9:30 a.m. Eastern, followed by one best-of-seven Baker match

Carthage - Lanes 9-10
North Central - Lanes 19-20
McKendree - Lanes 15-16

Previously at the MOTIV Ladyjack Classic

This will be the third time that Youngstown State will head to Kenosha, Wis., for the Ladyjack Classic at Sheridan Lanes.

Last season, Youngstown State posted a 10-3 head-to-head record and finished fifth among 16 teams. The Penguins qualified sixth, just 17 pins shy of making the top four. Lyndsay Ennis was YSU's top individual finisher in 17th place with a five-game total of 1,043, and Megan Grams finished 27th with a 1,001 total.

YSU finished seventh among 15 teams in 2019 when the tournament was called the SFA Ladyjack Hammer Classic. The Penguins were 8-5 overall, and they topped 10th-ranked UW-Whitewater twice in bracket play.

Recapping the Dezy Strong Classic

Youngstown State set a school record for head-to-head wins at a tournament and finished second at the Dezy Strong Classic two weeks ago in Coram, N.Y. The Penguins won their first 12 matches and went seven games in the championship decision before falling to Louisiana Tech.

Seeded second in the best-of-seven Baker bracket, YSU topped the eighth-ranked Lady Techsters 4-2 in the opening round of the day to earn a bye into the championship match. In a rematch, YSU and Louisiana Tech were deadlocked through six games, and an untimely pocket 7-10 split in the ninth frame proved to be the difference in the championship.

The Penguins had the highest pinfall in Friday's Baker matches by 153 pins, and they had the third-best traditional total on Saturday. The Penguins averaged 197.8 overall at the tournament, which was the highest in the field, and only four teams in the field of 18 averaged at least 189.

Individually, YSU sophomore Jade Cote finished sixth with a five-game total of 1,038 to earn all-tournament team honors. Lyndsay Ennis and Kirsten Moore placed 12th and 13th, respectively, and Madyson Marx added a 25th-place finish.

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. Moore earned all-tournament team honors at the MOTIV Penguin Classic to begin the season, and she leads the Penguins with a 207.08 average after two tournaments.

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 she has shared the anchor position with Cote at the first two tournaments. 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 face a quick turnaround as it will bowl in the Eastern Shore Hawk Classic next weekend, Nov. 18-20. The tournament, which will be held at Millsboro Lanes in Millsboro, Del., will be the final competition for the Penguins until January.