Rochester, N.Y. — For the second straight year and for the third time in school history, Youngstown State is headed to the Final Four of the National Collegiate Women's Bowling Championship! The Penguins punched their ticket to the national semifinals by winning the Rochester Regional on Saturday at Bowl-A-Roll.
YSU's season and the careers of its six seniors will continue next week in Las Vegas as the Penguins will join the other top seeds from the tournament's four regional sites at the Suncoast Bowling Center. Youngstown State, which is the third overall seed in the tournament, will open play in the national semifinals against second-seeded Nebraska on Friday. Jacksonville State and Wichita State will be on the other side of the bracket.
To get to Las Vegas, Youngstown State had to prevail through a battle with North Carolina A&T for the second straight day. The Penguins advanced to the finals by outlasting the Aggies for a 2-1 mega-match win on Friday, and they went toe-to-toe with the MEAC Champions for nearly five hours on Saturday.
Just like in Friday's mega-match, North Carolina A&T won the traditional point 1,058-969, and Youngstown State responded with its best set of the weekend in a 1,087-1,024 win in the Baker pinball round to extend the match. Youngstown State a string of five strikes in game two and a six consecutive strikes in game three to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven section of the mega match, but the Aggies won the next three games to finish off a 4-2 win for the point and a 2-1 win in the match.
With Youngstown State having just one loss in the double-elimination bracket, the teams were pitted against each other again for best-of-seven, winner-take-all Baker match. The teams moved one pair to the right to lanes 11-12, and after a 10-minute intermission and a 10-minute warmup on the fresh oil, Youngstown State took control and won 4-0.
The group of Lyndsay Ennis, Amanda Granata, Kirsten Moore, Madyson Marx and Jade Cote started with a 221-195 win in game one to build momentum, and the Penguins never lost it. With a large and loud contingent of supporters having their backs, the Penguins won by an average of 20.25 pins and had a 15-pin advantage in all four games.
Youngstown State won game two 193-178, and it got to the brink by firing a 247 in game three. YSU was down 14 pins after five frames, but the Aggies had the first open of the game in the sixth, and Granata, Moore, Marx and Cote strung four straight strikes together to all but lock up the title. After her strike to open the 10th, Cote needed just one pin to clinch the victory, and she delivered a 9-count. The senior from Farnham, Quebec, picked up the 10-in to finish a 221 game.
For Marx and Moore, the fifth-year seniors will be going to their third Final Four. Their first was in North Kansas City during the 2020-21 COVID-19 season, and they were true seniors on last year's squad that played at the national semifinals in Allen Park, Mich.
