Youngstown, Ohio — Youngstown State's bowling team is the No. 7 seed in the 2026 Conference USA Championship and will begin tournament play on Wednesday against No. 6 Wichita State.
The five-day, double-elimination event will go from Wednesday through Sunday at Harahan Lanes in Harahan, La., outside of New Orleans. ESPN+ will be the exclusive video provider for the tournament, and the winner emerging from the field of 12 teams will receive Conference USA's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. With 10 of the top 11 teams in the country in RPI in Conference USA, the tournament will also serve as an opportunity to further build resumes for at-large consideration. Wichita State is the defending champion, and YSU finished as the runner-up in 2024.
This is the largest field in the history of the event, increasing from 10 teams to 12 for 2025-26. Conference USA added Nebraska, Sacred Heart and Wright State since last season, while Stephen F. Austin dropped its program.
Live Coverage
In addition to the ESPN+ broadcast, results of YSU's matches will be posted throughout the tournament on the team's Instagram and Facebook stories and the program's X feed.
Tournament Preview
Tournament Format
The Conference USA Bowling Championship will be a double-elimination tournament with each contest decided by the mega-match format. A mega-match encompasses three different rounds or points, and a team must get to two points to win the match. Teams will bowl one standard five-person game for total pinfall, then five Baker games for total pinfall. If one team wins both the traditional point and Baker point, they will advance to the next round. If the teams split the standard and Baker games, they will move on to a best-of-seven series of Baker games to determine the winner. If necessary, the second championship match on Sunday will be only a Baker best-of-seven match.
Tournament Seeds
(NTCA poll, RPI ranking)
- No. 1 Jacksonville State (#1, #1)
- No. 2 Vanderbilt (#2, #2)
- No. 3 Arkansas State (#3, #3)
- No. 4 Nebraska (#4, #4)
- No. 5 Louisiana Tech (#6, #5)
- No. 6 Wichita State (#5, #6)
- No. 7 Youngstown State (#7, #7)
- No. 8 Sam Houston (#9, #9)
- No. 9 Sacred Heart (#10, #10)
- No. 10 Wright State (#11, #11)
- No. 11 Tulane (#17, #18)
- No. 12 Valparaiso (#21, #21)
Schedule
Round 1 — Wednesday at 2 p.m. Eastern | Watch Live
- Match 1 — No. 1 Jacksonville State vs. No. 12 Valparaiso
- Match 2 — No. 5 Louisiana Tech vs. No. 8 Sam Houston
- Match 3 — No. 4 Nebraska vs. No. 9 Sacred Heart
- Match 4 — No. 3 Arkansas State vs. No. 10 Wright State
- Match 5 — No. 6 Wichita State vs. No. 7 Youngstown State
- Match 6 — No. 2 Vanderbilt vs. No. 11 Tulane
Tournament Field
YSU This Season vs. Conference USA Teams (19-21)
- 0-3 vs. No. 1 Jacksonville State
- 3-2 vs. No. 2 Vanderbilt
- 1-1 vs. No. 3 Arkansas State
- 3-2 vs. No. 4 Nebraska
- 0-4 vs. No. 5 Louisiana Tech
- 1-1 vs. No. 6 Wichita State
- 2-1 vs. No. 8 Sacred Heart
- 3-3 vs. No. 9 Sam Houston
- 1-0 vs. No. 10 Wright State
- 2-4 vs. No. 11 Tulane
- 3-0 vs. No. 12 Valparaiso
History at the Southland / Conference USA Championship
This is Youngstown State's seventh appearance at a conference championship, with the first four being in the Southland Bowling League and the last two in Conference USA after the league's bowling membership shifted from the former to the latter in 2023-24.
The Penguins have been a top-four seed five times at the event, including a No. 2 seed in 2025. Youngstown State has finished as the tournament runner-up twice, in 2022 and 2024.
Yearly Summaries
- 2018-19 (No. 6 seed; finished tied for seventh): L, 2-0 vs. No. 3 Arkansas State; L, 2-0 vs. No. 7 Louisiana Tech
- 2019-20: Tournament canceled due to COVID-19
- 2020-21 (No. 4 seed; finished tied for fifth): L, 2-1 vs. No. 5 Sam Houston; W, 2-0 vs. No. 8 Valparaiso; L, 2-0 vs. No. 1 Arkansas State
- 2021-22 (No. 4 seed; finished second): W, 2-1 vs. No. 5 Louisiana Tech; W, 2-1 vs. No. 1 Sam Houston; L, 2-1 vs. No. 2 Vanderbilt; W, 2-1 vs. No. 5 Louisiana Tech; L, 2-0 vs. No. 2 Vanderbilt... Emma Dockery and Emma Wrenn were named to the All-Tournament Team.
- 2022-23 (No. 4 seed; finished fourth): L, 2-0 vs. No. 5 Sam Houston; W, 2-1 vs. No. 8 Valparaiso; W, 2-1 vs. No. 1 Vanderbilt; L, 2-0 vs. No. 6 Louisiana Tech... Megan Grams was named to the All-Tournament Team.
- 2023-24 (No. 3 seed; finished second): W, 2-0 vs. No. 6 Sam Houston; L, 2-0 vs. No. 2 Arkansas State; W, 2-0 vs. No. 6 Sam Houston; W, 2-1 vs. No. 5 Louisiana Tech; W, 2-0 vs. No. 2 Arkansas State; L, 2-0 vs. No. 1 Jacksonville State... Madyson Marx and Kirsten Moore were named to the All-Tournament Team.
- 2024-25 (No. 2 seed; finished tied for seventh): L, 2-0 vs. No. 7 Sam Houston; L, 2-0 vs. No. 6 Stephen F. Austin.
YSU's All-Time Record By Seed (10-12)
- No. 2 — 0-2
- No. 3 — 4-2
- No. 4 — 6-6
- No. 6 — 0-2
YSU's All-Time Record vs. Seed (10-12)
- No. 1 — 2-2
- No. 2 — 1-3
- No. 3 — 0-1
- No. 5 — 3-2
- No. 6 — 2-2
- No. 7 — 0-2
- No. 8 — 2-0
YSU's All-Time Record vs. Opponents
- Arkansas State — 1-3
- Jacksonville State — 0-1
- Louisiana Tech — 3-2
- Nebraska — 0-0
- Sacred Heart — 0-0
- Sam Houston — 3-3
- Stephen F. Austin — 0-1 — inactive program
- Tulane — 0-0
- Valparaiso — 2-0
- Vanderbilt — 1-2
- Wichita State — 0-0
- Wright State — 0-0
Recapping the Music City Classic
Youngstown State went 8-5 in head-to-head matches and finished 13th overall at the Music City Classic, its last event of the regular season. The Penguins won their first three matches of Baker play on March 6, and they followed with three straight wins to close the traditional portion the following day. YSU was 13th after qualifying, and it finished in the same slot after going 2-1 in the bracket on March 8.
Individually, freshman Liv Baskin was YSU's top finisher in traditional play, placing 17th with a 1,046 set. Junior Amy Chrzanowski was the top-scoring Penguin overall at the event with 20.21 pins per frame, boosted by a 20.99 mark in Baker play.
A Glimpse at the Guins
- Youngstown State is in a new era this season — one as a program that has won a national championship and one that has seven newcomers and just one returner from last season's title-winning squad on its 2025-26 roster.
- The Penguins are ranked seventh in March's National Tenpin Coaches Association Top 25 Poll. YSU is also seventh in the latest NCAA RPI posted on March 8 and seventh in the NTCA Power Index on March 15, which measures metrics similarly to the RPI.
- Youngstown State is 71-33 overall this season for a .683 winning percentage, which is the third-best percentage in program history. YSU is 27-14 in Baker matches, 31-10 in traditional contests and 13-9 in best-of-seven Baker matches.
- YSU is coming off a storybook season in 2024-25 in which six seniors led the Penguins to the 2025 National Collegiate Women's Bowling Championship. It was the first national championship ever in a women's sport at Youngstown State and its first in any sport since 1997. YSU has been to the NCAA Tournament in five straight seasons and reached the Final Four three times.
- While the Penguins celebrated their momentous accomplishment, they're ready to turn the page with six freshmen, a junior transfer and returning sophomore Kara Beissel looking to carry on the tradition. Beissel waited her turn behind the veteran lineup last season, but she stepped up in a big way when she was called upon and was named to the All-Tournament Team at the Final Four.
- Beissel's scoring average is 20.07 pins per frame this season, and she's been the team's top scorer in Baker play with a 20.50 average per frame.
- Amy Chrzanowski, a junior transfer from FDU, is the most experienced collegiate bowler on the roster. She primarily bowled fourth in the Knights' lineup last season, earning Second Team All-NEC honors and helping FDU to the NCAA Tournament. She placed fifth to earn all-tournament team honors at the Big Red Invitational on Feb. 22, and she finished 15th at two tournaments in the fall. Chrzanowski and freshman Liv Baskin are tied for second the team in Baker scoring average at 19.75.
- This is Youngstown State's 10th season as an intercollegiate program, and Doug Kuberski is entering his seventh full season as head coach. He took over midway through the 2018-19 season, and he has gone on to lead the Penguins to five NCAA tournaments and three Final Four appearances. Kuberski is a two-time National Coach of the Year (2020 and 2024) and a two-time conference coach of the year (2020 and 2023), and he earned his 500th victory at YSU on Oct. 19 against Vanderbilt. Madyson Marx, a First-Team All-American last season and a five-year member of the program, is in her first season on the staff as a graduate assistant, and Mackenzie Olesky is in her third season as an assistant coach.
Up Next
If Youngstown State claims Conference USA's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament or earns an at-large invitation, it would compete in the NCAA Regionals on April 2-4. The selection show will be on March 25 at 4 p.m. Regional locations will be in Arlington, Texas; Lansing, Mich.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; and Rochester, N.Y.
