Bowling Team Closes Out SWAC Roundup I In 1st Place

January 15, 2023 TigerFans

D’IBERVILLE, Miss. – The Texas Southern University bowling team concluded the SWAC West Roundup at the Cypress Lanes in D’Iberville, Miss., with the best record in the field of eight after dropping two matches on opening day.

The Tigers finished with an 11-3 record and a match ahead of second place Southern University, which tallied a 10-4 record.

The double round robin competition where each team played the other twice meant that there were sure to be some outstanding bowling during the three-day event that utilized the traditional scoring format.

TSU started out with a pair of victories over Florida A&M (953-945) and Grambling State (869-853) for a fantastic start of a long weekend. The jubilation felt after going 2-0 quickly dissipated after the Tiges dropped consecutive matches to perennial powers in the SWAC in Prairie View A&M and Southern. PVAMU took the match by a whopping 220 pins in a 1,038 to 818 result while Southern took the match 989-915 to give TSU a 2-2 record after four matches. The Tigers heated up to finish 5-2 after the first rotation with wins over Alabama A&M (923-838), Jackson State (1,047-937) and Alabama State (1,064-968).

The second rotation saw TSU once again downing FAMU (1,021-981) and Grambling (975-748) before dropping a second outing to PVAMU by a pin count of 1,056-1,012. The event victory was wrapped up in match 11 when TSU pulled off the upset of Southern by a 988-840 pin count. Wins over Alabama A&M (958-919), Jackson State (944-938) and Alabama State (1,019-1,002) sealed the deal giving the Tigers an 11-3 record on the weekend.

Cassie De La Fuente had the two highest scoring matches of the weekend for the Tigers when she rolled a 267 in the second match against PVAMU and a 256 just one match prior against Grambling. De La Fuente finished with the 27^th highest pin count for the tournament with 2,291 in 11 matches. Evan Smith was TSU’s highest individual finisher with 2,531 pins in 12 matches for a 15^th place finish. Shyanne Ciesiolka’s 2,289 was just two pins behind De La Fuente for 28^th place while Payton Trevino (32^nd – 2,069 in 11 matches), Leya Parker (38^th – 1,706 in nine matches), Brianna Bogues (41^st – 1,374 in eight matches), Tahirah Turner (48^th – 698 in four matches) and Jennifer Hoang (49^th – 548 in three matches) rounded out the squad for the Tigers that finished in the top 50 individually.

UP NEXT
The Tigers will have a couple weeks to prepare for their next tournament when they travel back to D’Iberville for the SWAC East Roundup on Feb. 3-5 where they will look to repeat as SWAC Roundup victors as the regular season title will be on the line.