Last year, members of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln bowling team were national champions.
Yet two weeks ago, they placed seventh at the Ozark Invitational.
That shouldn’t have happened, coach Bill Straub said.
If he could do it all over, he said, he wouldn’t have brought the team to the tournament, where there were “too many sick people.”
“It was my error to go at all,” Straub said.
The team hopes to play better at the Big Red Invitational, which they are hosting this weekend. The tournament, which will be at Sun Valley Lanes, starts at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.
The tournament will be the second time the Huskers have hosted a tournament, and the first since the 1999-2000 season.
Four people were sick at the Ozark Invitational, and though Straub wouldn’t say that that was entirely the reason for their low placement, he did say it was a contributing factor
“It’s like any walk of life,” Straub said. “When you are feeling better, you do better.”
The Ozark Invitational was the team’s first tournament of the season, and team captain Kaleena Henning said the team has a history of not doing well at their first tournament.
The format was different than what the team was expecting, with one round lasting three hours longer than the anticipated stop time.
“We’ve had a rough start, but I think collectively we have taken responsibility for it,” Henning said.
Now that their first tournament is out of the way, the team has been putting in extra time at the alley. The team that consists of 10 national champions expects to perform as well as they did last year, if not better.
“We went into the season saying ‘If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,’” Henning said. “Yes, we won the national championship, but there’s not an egotistical persona. We want to do whatever we did last year, but grow.”
One thing that is better this year is the team chemistry, senior Cassandra Leuthold said, and that should help at this tournament.
“We have good bonding, and we’re strong together,” said freshman Shalima Zalsha, who came from Indonesia to play for the Huskers. “I think we have a good chance to be better than last year, a very good chance.”
Leuthold is looking to the team to win another national championship and add one more title to the team’s previous national championships.
“Last year was a surprise, but the team chemistry and dynamic is better this year,” Leuthold said. “We can do it again this year.”
They will try to prove that they “can do it again” at the Big Red Invitational.
“(The last tournament) was a learning experience, and I know there is going to be improvement that is very doable,” Henning said. “I think people will be shocked at the turnaround.”
paigecornwell@dailynebraskan.com
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