Senior bowler strives to lead team to repeat championship

Third place is unacceptable.

That's the mindset senior Cassandra Leuthold has about her individual place at the Greater Ozark Invitational last week.

It is her last year on the Nebraska bowling team that won the national championship last year, her last year to try to get as close as possible to Shannon Pluhowsky's school record for tournament wins in a season, her last year to prove that she's the best bowler in the country.

With a third place, Leuthold thought, there goes one tournament.

She knows she can get first. She has before.

In addition to being on the national championship team last year and an All-American, she received the Most Outstanding Player award at the 2009 NCAA bowling championship. She's earned a spot on the United States Junior National Team twice and plans to compete in amateur tournaments after graduating.

"I've got a million more tournaments to bowl," Leuthold said. "The thought (that it is my last year) doesn't even cross my mind."

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Leuthold walks into the bowling alley on East Campus while the rest of the team is practicing. She is sick, and she is tired. After having not slept in 48 hours because of so much homework, Leuthold walked into practice anyway. She's there because she has to be, because she attributes her skills to the amount of time she's spent bowling throughout her life.

"I have 18 years of experience, and that's a lot of time," Leuthold said. "It's something you grow into, and that natural ability helps. It helps me be better."

Coach Bill Straub, who has won eight national titles with the Huskers since 1997, said if Leuthold isn't the best player in the country, she's very close.

"It's real handy to have someone of her experience," Straub said.

Leuthold has high expectations not only for herself, but for the team, which took seventh place at the Ozark Invitational. Third place isn't good enough. Neither is seventh. Straub attributes his team's performance to the fact that the Huskers had "too many sick people." A week after the invitational, a player came to him and said she had swine flu, strep throat and pneumonia.

"We'll never know, though," Straub said. "But there's a trophy from the national championship, and that would make me think they weren't playing to their skill level."

Leuthold shook her head when describing the tournament. The lane conditions were extreme, she said, and demanded more accuracy and focus.

"When the lanes don't favor your style, you just want to scream and pull your hair out," Leuthold said. "It's hard to watch a team with a lower ability beat you."

And it was hard to watch other players finish higher than her, she said. Third place is unacceptable.

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Leuthold doesn't feel pressure from her teammates to do better, but said she wants to do well for the Nebraska fans who want to see back-to-back championships.

"I think, ‘I've got to step it up a little more,'" Leuthold said. "So there is a little stress."

The team chemistry, according to Leuthold, is much better this year than last. Straub called the team "deeper" than previous teams, which only had around six to eight players that could be interchangeable. Of the 12 Huskers on the roster, 10 are returning bowlers who know what it was like to be a national champion. Straub sums up the team with the words "very high potential."