Final Regular-Season Tournament on Tap for Bowling This Weekend in Tennessee

The Youngstown State bowling team will begin its final sprint of the season this weekend at the three-day Music City Classic in the Nashville suburb of Smyrna, Tenn. The Penguins will compete against 33 teams at Vanderbilt's tournament at the Smyrna Bowling Center as they bowl in their final event of the regular season.

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.

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Youngstown State will bowl competitively as a team for the first time since Feb. 18 when it finished sixth at the Mid-Winter Invitational. Before that tournament hosted by Arkansas State, the Penguins had posted six straight top-four finishes to begin the season. YSU, which is ranked third in the National Tenpin Coaches Association Top 25 Poll and the NCAA RPI, is looking to build momentum for postseason play as the Conference USA Championship looms next weekend and the NCAA Regional awaits on April 5-6.

Tournament Preview

All nine Conference USA teams will be part of the 33-team field this weekend at the Music City Classic as the programs try to make final pushes for a better seed at next week's conference event. In total, 13 of the top 15 teams from March's NTCA Top 25 poll and 17 ranked teams overall are in the competitive field.

Previewing the Field

Ranked Teams (17): #1 Jacksonville State, #2 Arkansas State, #3 Youngstown State, #4 Vanderbilt, #5 North Carolina A&T, #7 Louisiana Tech, #9 Maryville, #10 Sam Houston, #11 Stephen F. Austin, #12 Wisconsin-Whitewater, #13 Tulane, #14 Newman, #15 Maryland Eastern Shore, #17 Valparaiso, #18 Sacred Heart, #20 McKendree, #22 Oklahoma Christian

Teams Receiving Votes (1): Central Missouri

Unranked Teams (15): Adelphi, Belmont Abbey, Carroll University, Carthage, Emmanuel (Ga.), Howard, Jackson State, Kentucky Wesleyan, Lewis, Lincoln Memorial, LIU, Marian, Mt. Aloysius, Prairie View A&M, Wright State

Conference USA Teams (9): Arkansas State, Jacksonville State, Louisiana Tech, Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, Tulane, Valparaiso, Vanderbilt, Youngstown State

Format and Schedule

The Music City Classic will follow the standard NCAA format with a 13-match rotation this weekend at the Smyrna Bowling Center. There will be five Baker matches on Friday beginning at 10:45 a.m. Eastern, and total pinfall will determine the winners of each head-to-head match. Five traditional matches will follow on Saturday starting at 10:30 a.m. ET 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 will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern. The bracket matches will be contested in a best-of-seven Baker format.

Friday, 10:45 a.m. ET » Five Baker Matches

Belmont Abbey - Lanes 17-18
Lewis - Lanes 21-22
#17 Valparaiso - Lanes 35-36
Howard - Lanes 49-50
#18 Sacred Heart - Lanes 13-14

Saturday, 10:30 a.m. ET » Five Traditional Matches

Pool position round - Lanes TBA
#4 Vanderbilt - Lanes 37-38
#1 Jacksonville State - Lanes 49-50
Mount Aloysius - Lanes 7-8
#5 North Carolina A&T - Lanes 11-12

Sunday, 10 a.m. ET » Three Best-of-Seven Baker Matches

YSU's History at the Music City Classic

2016-17 (Columbia 300 Music City Classic)

Team finish » 20th of 35
Head-to-head record » 3-9
Top individual finisher » Rachel Darrow (3rd)

2017-18 (Columbia 300 Music City Classic)

Team finish » 19th of 32
Head-to-head record » 8-5
Top individual finisher » Ashley Kolb (40th)

2018-19 (Columbia Music City Classic)

Team finish » 11th of 29
Head-to-head record » 6-6
Top individual finisher » Nikki Mendez (17th)

2019-20 (Columbia Music City Classic)

Team finish » 18th of 29
Head-to-head record » 5-8
Top individual finisher » Emma Dockery (21st)

2021-22 (Columbia Music City Classic)

Team finish » 10th of 33
Head-to-head record » 10-3
Top individual finisher » Emma Dockery (35th)

2022-23 (Music City Classic)

Team finish » 8th of 30
Head-to-head record » 7-6
Top individual finisher » Madyson Marx (21st)

Recapping the Mid-Winter Invitational

When Youngstown State last took the lanes competitively just under a month ago in Jonesboro, Ark., it had an up-and-down performance at the Mid-Winter Classic. The Penguins were seventh after five Baker matches on the opening day, and they surged up to fourth after a strong performance in the traditional format to conclude qualifying. YSU then dropped all three of its matches in the best-of-seven Baker format, dropping a five-game match to Vanderbilt, a six-game decision to Maryville and a seven-game bout with Nebraska.

Kirsten Moore was the individual headliner at the tournament and topped the field by 47 pins with a five-game set of 1,217. She averaged 243.4 and became the first Penguin to ever win two tournaments in the same season. Madyson Marx bowled a 1,133 set to finish seventh, and Youngstown State had the second-highest pinfall in the field.

Record Book Updates

Moore broke a pair of individual school records at the tournament. She bowled the highest five-game set ever by a Penguin with a 1,217, topping Jade Cote's mark set on Jan. 20 by 15 pins. Moore's average of 243.4 was also the highest traditional average regardless of the number of games.
Marx's 1,133 set was the sixth-highest five-game total in program history, and her 226.6 average was the seventh-best mark ever by a Penguin at a tournament.
Marx and Moore both threw 11-strike 279 games at the tournament, which tied for the fourth-highest game by an individual in school history.
As a team, Youngstown State averaged 214.8 in traditional play, which was the second-best average at a tournament in program history. The 5,370 total pinfall also ranked second for a single tournament.

Scouting the Penguins

YSU is ranked third in the most-recent NTCA Preseason Top 25 Poll. The Penguins were sixth in the preseason, third in December and second in February. - LINK
Youngstown State had three straight tournament MVP awards to begin the season and it has four overall. 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. Moore was the top finisher again at the Mid-Winter Invitational, becoming the Penguin ever to win two events in the same season. The Penguins have more MVPs in 2023-24 than they had in their first seven years as a program combined.
Cote was named the Conference USA Bowler of the Month for January. She was the individual tournament champion at the Northeast Classic, and she was the runner-up at the PVAMU Invitational. - LINK
Moore followed Cote by earning the conference's Bowler of the Month award in February. Moore won the Mid-Winter Invitational by 47 pins in YSU's lone competition of the month. - LINK
Youngstown State has bowled the second-toughest schedule in the country this season, according to the NCAA RPI. The Penguins are ranked third in the RPI that was released on Feb. 6. More-recent data posted on the NTCA website still has YSU ranking third in the RPI and second in strength of schedule.
YSU is on pace to smash several single-season school records. Among them are Baker average (20.53), traditional average (20.82), fill percentage (85.4%) and strike percentage (53.8%).
Youngstown State ranks second in the country in overall scoring average at 20.64 pins per frame. It ranks second in traditional average (20.82) and third in Baker average (20.53).
Cote ranks third in the country in scoring average this season at 21.50 pins per frame, while Marx is 13th at 20.84. In the traditional format, Moore is fourth (21.47), Cote is sixth (21.26), Lyndsay Ennis is eighth (21.11), and Madison Doseck ranks 14th (20.81).
Cote leads the nation in strike percentage at 58.7%, and she ranks second on the national chart in Baker double percentage at 61.9%.
YSU had the top grade-point average out of all bowling programs in the country in 2022-23 - LINK
Marx and 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
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. She was named Canada's Adult Bowler of the Year for 2023 by the Canadian Tenpin Federation. - LINK

Up Next

Youngstown State will compete at the Conference USA Championship next weekend at Colonial Bowling Lanes in Harahan, La. The event will begin on March 22 and go through March 24. The winner of the tournament will receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.