After two months of waiting to get back on the lanes, the Youngstown State bowling team will resume its 2023-24 season this weekend at the Northeast Classic in New Castle, Del. The three-day tournament featuring a talented group of 37 teams will be held at Bowlerama on Friday through Sunday.
All 13 of YSU's matches will be streamed live on the YSUsports YouTube channel, and results will be posted throughout the weekend on the @ysubowling X feed.
Youngstown State is looking to build off the best fall semester in program history. The Penguins enter the spring semester ranked third in the most-recent National Tenpin Coaches Association Top 25 poll after posting four consecutive top-four finishes at tournaments. YSU finished second at the Hawk Classic when it was last in action on Nov. 17-19, 2023.
Tournament Preview
The Northeast Classic will feature one of the largest fields of any tournament in the country this season as 37 teams will convene in Northern Delaware. There will be 19 teams ranked in December's NTCA Top 25 Poll in attendance, including 14 of the top 15. There will also be eight Conference USA teams competing among the loaded group of opponents.
Previewing the Field
Ranked Teams (19): #1 Jacksonville State, #2 Vanderbilt, #3 Youngstown State, #4 Louisiana Tech, #5 North Carolina A&T, #6 Arkansas State, #7 Nebraska, #9 Stephen F. Austin, #10 Maryville, #11 Sam Houston, #12 Tulane, #13 Merrimack, #14 Maryland Eastern Shore, #15 Mount St. Mary's, #17 Sacred Heart, #20 Oklahoma Christian, #21 McKendree, #23 Central Missouri, #24 Delaware State
Teams Receiving Votes (3): Felician, Niagara, Saint Francis (Pa.)
Unranked Teams (15): Adelphi, Bryant, Chestnut Hill, Holy Family, Howard, LIU, Molloy, Morgan State, Mount Aloysius, NJCU, Norfolk State, Saint Anselm, UAB, Wagner, Wilmington
Conference USA Teams (8): Arkansas State, Jacksonville State, Louisiana Tech, Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, Tulane, Vanderbilt, Youngstown State
Format and Schedule
The Northeast Classic will follow the standard 13-match rotation this weekend as the Penguins get back in competition for the first time in two months. There will be five Baker matches on Friday beginning at 10:30 a.m., and total pinfall will determine the winners of each head-to-head match. Five traditional matches will follow on Saturday starting at 9:25 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 8:25 a.m.. The bracket matches will be contested in a best-of-seven Baker format.
Friday, 10:30 a.m. » Five Baker matches
Saturday, 9:25 a.m. » Five traditional matches
Sunday, 8:25 a.m. » Three best-of-seven Baker matches
YSU's History at the Northeast Classic
This will be the fourth time that Youngstown State will bowl in the Northeast Classic/Invitational hosted by Sacred Heart. It will also be the third bowling center that will house the tournament since the Penguins made their first trip in 2020. The Penguins have gone 9-4 or better and finished at least fifth in each of their first three appearances.
2019-20 (AMF Bristol Pike Lanes)
- Team finish » 5th of 26
- Head-to-head record » 10-3
- Top individual finisher » Nikki Mendez (7th)
2021-22 (Bowlero Deptford)
- Team finish » 3rd of 18
- Head-to-head record » 9-4
- Top individual finisher » Emma Wrenn (17th)
2022-23 (Bowlero Deptford)
- Team finish » 5th of 33
- Head-to-head record » 9-4
- Top individual finisher » Kirsten Moore (9th)
Recapping the Hawk Classic
When Youngstown State was last in action on Nov. 17-19, it closed the book on the fall semester in record-setting fashion. The Penguins broke seven school records at the Hawk Classic in Virginia while posting a 9-4 head-to-head record and a second-place overall finish. YSU was seeded second in the championship bracket, and it topped Vanderbilt in the semifinals before falling to Jacksonville State in the finals. It was a high-scoring tournament with 16 of the 22 teams in the field averaging at least 202, and the Penguins' average of 222 was six pins higher than everyone other than Jax State and Vandy.
Ranked Wins: Of YSU's nine wins overall at the tournament, seven of them were against ranked opponents. The Penguins topped No. 15 Fairleigh Dickinson, No. 17 Sacred Heart and No. 18 Mount St. Mary's in Baker play on the opening day, and they followed that with traditional victories against No. 23 Delaware State, No. 24 Merrimack and No. 25 Morgan State. Vanderbilt was the top-ranked team in the country when YSU beat the Commodores in the semifinals.
Individual Highlights: Madyson Marx was Youngstown State's highest individual finisher in the traditional format by placing 18th with a six-game set of 1,314. Megan Grams finished 24th with a 1,303 set, and Kirsten Moore was 36th with a 1,278. While those were strong efforts, the Penguins were even more impressive in the Baker format with Marx, Moore and Jade Cote each averaging at least 22.66 pins per frame.
Record Book Updates
Youngstown State broke seven program records at Bowl America Woodbridge in the three-day stretch to close out the fall semester:
- Baker Game - 300: Megan Grams, Madison Doseck, Kirsten Moore, Jade Cote and Madyson Marx combined to bowl the second 300 Baker game in program history.
- Baker Match - 1,323: That same quintet of Penguins was on fire throughout the match against Fairleigh Dickinson and went on to shoot the second-highest Baker set in NCAA history at 1,323. Youngstown State shot games of 216, 242, 279, 300 and 286 against FDU, and it had 28 consecutive strikes at one point.
- Baker Total - 5,718: With the 1,323 set, it's no surprise that YSU went on to post the highest Baker round in program history at 5,718. That total was 336 pins higher than the previous school record that was set at the 2022 Big Red Invitational.
- Traditional Total - 6,429: YSU averaged 214.3 and totaled 6,429 pins over six matches in the traditional format. The total was a school record for a six-match tournament, and the average was the second-highest overall.
- Best-of-seven bracket average: 226.92: Youngstown State averaged 226.92 over its 13 games in the best-of-seven championship bracket to break the previous record by more than six pins. The Penguins had games of 259, 299, 268 and 277 in their win over Vanderbilt.
- Individual Baker Frame Average - Kirsten Moore's 24.24: Kirsten Moore averaged 24.24 pins per frame in the Baker format, which was more than a pin higher than the previous school record that teammate Jade Cote set in October.
- Individual Scoring Average - Kirsten Moore's 22.92: Combining her performance in both the Baker and traditional formats, Moore broke the program's record for overall scoring average at a single tournament with 22.92 pins per frame. That was 0.35 pins higher than Cote's previous record of 22.57 that was set in 2022.
In total, YSU bowled seven Baker games of at least 277 at the tournament, and each of those rank among the top 12 in program history. Grams, Doseck, Moore, Cote and Moore bowled three of the top nine Baker sets, and that same group also bowled the sixth-highest traditional set in school history. Individually, Marx and Grams bowled the third and fourth-best six-game sets in school history; Moore, Cote and Marx had three of the top six Baker frame averages; and Moore, Cote and Marx posted three of the top five overall scoring averages ever by Penguins.
Scouting the Penguins
Team Overview: The third-ranked Youngstown State bowling team returns all nine bowlers from last year's squad that set a school record for win percentage and advanced to the finals at the NCAA Lansing Regional. Fifth-year senior Megan Grams leads the veteran group along with fourth-year seniors Madyson Marx and Kirsten Moore, who are coming off seasons in which they were named Honorable Mention All-Americans by the NTCA. That trio has been to the NCAA Tournament in each of the last three seasons, including a Final Four run in 2020-21. The team also has four juniors (Jade Cote, Madison Doseck, Ellie Drescher and Lyndsay Ennis) and a pair of sophomores (Hope Bunk and Hannah Miller) returning, and Amanda Granata is the Penguins' lone newcomer. Coach Doug Kuberski, the Southland Bowling League Coach of the Year in 2019-20 and 2022-23 and the NCAA Division I Coach of the Year in 2019-20, is entering his fifth full season at Youngstown State.
Summarizing the Fall: Youngstown State had a first-place finish, two runner-up finishes and a fourth-place finish in its four fall-semester tournaments. That allowed the Penguins to move up three spots in the National Tenpin Coaches Association Top 25 Poll from sixth in the preseason to third in December. Three different Penguins - Jade Cote, Madyson Marx and Kirsten Moore - earned Most Valuable Player awards at tournaments during the semester, and Madison Doseck was also an all-tournament team selection. YSU was 36-16 overall in head-to-head matches, including 19-4 in Baker pinfall contests, and it earned 10 wins over teams ranked in the top 10.
News & Notes
- Youngstown State has had three straight tournament MVP awards to begin the season. Kirsten Moore earned the award at the Penguin Classic when she was the top individual finisher at the season-opening tournament. Jade Cote was then named MVP of the Destination Orlando tournament as the anchor during YSU's championship run, and Madyson Marx topped the individual standings at the MOTIV Ladyjack Classic. The Penguins have more MVPs in 2023-24 than they had in their first seven years as a program combined.
- YSU had the top grade-point average out of all bowling programs in the country in 2022-23 - LINK
- Seniors Madyson Marx and Kirsten Moore had two of the most accomplished seasons ever by a Penguin in 2022-23. Both were named Honorable Mention All-Americans by the NTCA, and Marx was a First-Team All-Southland Selection. - LINK
- Jade Cote has bowled in two international events for Team Canada since August. In October, she earned a silver medal at the IBF World Championships in trios. Between semesters, Cote clinched positions on Team Canada and Youth Team Canada for 2024 - LINK
- YSU was ranked sixth in the NTCA Preseason Top 25 Poll, which was is its highest preseason ranking in program history. In the first in-season poll of 2023-24, Youngstown State elevated to third and received the program's first-ever first-place vote. - LINK
Up Next
Youngstown State will fly South for the prestigious Prairie View A&M Invitational next weekend. The three-day tournament will be held Jan. 26-28 at The ITRC in Arlington, Texas.
