For the first time in program history, the St. Joseph girls bowling team competed at the WPIBL championships and will make its first trip to the west regional team competition set for Sunday at AMF Bowlero on Noblestown Road.
That feat is not lost on junior Louisa Palumbo, one of the more experienced team members who is excited for where the team is and where it still can go in the WPIBL.
“This is an incredible experience for us,” Palumbo said.
“Our team has been very in sync this year. Most of the team, this is our second year together. We were all really connected after last year, and we had a lot of motivation to get better together. We all were able to keep energy high in practices and matches and motivate each other. That was a big thing for us.”
All of the regional qualifiers, teams and individuals received the regional oil patterns for Bowlero on Wednesday and were able to prepare in practice.
The Lady Spartans finished 6-4 in the East Division, third behind Plum (10-0) and Franklin Regional (7-3).
They earned one of the four wild-card berths to the WPIBL team championships Feb. 12.
“We are a decent team in one of the hardest divisions in the WPIBL,” St. Joseph coach Dave Bernot said. “We were able to accumulate enough total pins to get in as one of the wild cards.”
But the berth to the regional championships wasn’t guaranteed before the WPIBL tournament. The section champions automatically qualified for regionals, but St. Joseph had to bowl their way in, and they did so with a strong performance at the WPIBL playoffs.
The Spartans finished 13th in the team standings and were one of the three wild cards to advance, joining Plum, Freeport, Deer Lakes and Kiski Area at the girls regional tournament.
“I am proud of the girls for how they bowled,” Bernot said. “It was a total team effort. There was a little pressure because they had to place in the top 18 (to advance) while some others already knew they had qualified.”
Palumbo fronted the St. Joseph effort with a 501 three-game series with games of 177, 169 and 155.
Annamarie White, Mattalie Bayne, Mary Huth, Julia Skowronski and Ruby Wissinger also will represent St. Joseph.
“This is a great opportunity for the girls at regionals,” Bernot said. “All season long, they worked together as a team, and each one got better at their own pace. That’s the important thing. They started to step up and really support each other. They saw some incredible bowlers throughout the section and really took a lot from that.”
The top 12 teams from the qualifying round will advance to the stepladder playoffs, while those same 12 also will advance to states in Lancaster in two weeks.
“That is going to be a challenge for the girls,” Bernot said. “They are going to have to step up their games, and they are aware of that.”
Individually, Palumbo averaged 180 through the 10-game regular season and earned a spot in the WPIBL singles tournament, where she placed 22nd out of 79 with a 504 average and a 212 high game.
That WPIBL finish gave her the berth to regional singles set for 9 a.m. Saturday at AMF Bowlero. She will be bowling at regionals for the second year in a row.
Each bowler will roll five traditional games, and the top 12 from that will advance to the stepladder playoffs and also qualify for states.
St. Joseph boys team member Martin Stickney, a junior, will bowl at regional singles Saturday after qualifying with a top-40 finish at the WPIBL championships. He averaged 203.6 in the regular season.
Spartans senior Jake Skunrich also is a regional qualifier based on his 195.1 regular-season average.