UMES bowling ranked 12th in preseason poll

PRINCESS ANNE, Md. (UMES) – The University of Maryland Eastern Shore women’s bowling team enters the 2023-24 season ranked twelfth in the National Tenpin Coaches Association Pre-Season Poll.

“It is our goal to maintain our status as a national perennial power in the sport,” UMES head coach Roger Petrin says. “It is great for UMES to get pre-season recognition on a national level. We will continue to work towards improving and climbing up the rankings throughout the season.”

Petrin’s roster includes six returners including Brooke Roberts, Gabriella Ochoa Hubbard,  Alejandra Amezcua, Mariana Santos, Alexis Ingersoll and Brooke Driver. Incoming freshman to this year’s team are Sybille Buezon and Aaliyah Friend.

Roberts, a graduate student from Port Orange, Florida, returns the Hawks after an impressive 2022-23 campaign. Last season, Roberts’ honors included National Tenpin Coaches Association Honorable Mention All-American, NTCA All-Region, First-Team All-MEAC, UMES Female Athlete of the Year, and College Sports Communicators Academic All-District.

Ochoa Hubbard enters her senior season coming off major improvement from a year ago. The senior from Nogales, Sonora in Mexico earned Second-Team All-MEAC honors and CSC Academic All-District accolades.

Amezcua, a graduate student from Baja California, Mexico, was among the top ten MEAC bowlers in the statistical categories of strike percentage, first ball average, first ball 9+ average, setup bowler ninth frame strike percentage, split leave percentage and split leave percentage.

Santos comes off a freshman year in which she finished fourth in the MEAC in leadoff bowler first frame strike percentage and 10th in traditional first ball average. The sophomore from Jumandi, Colombia bowled 628 frames last season and was second on the team in first ball average.

Ingersol was also impressive as a freshman last year. The Fulton, New York bowler gained valuable experience last season as she advanced to the USBC Intercollegiate Singles Championship after finishing fifth at the Smyrna, Tennessee Sectional. Ingersol won her first-round match at the ISC before falling in the second round to Wichita State’s Paige Wagner — the event’s eventual champion. Ingersol was ranked eighth in the country in traditional split conversion percentage and finished second on the team with a 195.7 baker average.

Driver, a senior from Woodbridge, Virginia, is expected to bring leadership to the team this season after a promising junior season which included making the All-Tournament Team at the James Brown Classic last year while improving her average from 173.8 as a sophomore to 179.9 overall last season.

Freshman Sybille Buezon comes to UMES from Qatar. Buezon had success competing in World Overseas Filipino Bowling Tour competition. The WOFBT, which has been in existence since 2014, is a scratch tournament held annually in Dubai that brings together Filipino bowlers from around the globe. Her 2022 resume from the WOFBT includes a second-place finish in women’s singles, women’s team and women’s all events competition.

Friend joins the Hawks program after developing her bowling skills at Northside Lanes in Winston-Salem, North Carolina – a family-owned bowling center. Friend has been successful in tri-state competition among North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. She finished second in the Pepsi Tournament in North Carolina last year. Two years ago, she made the cut in the U-18 Division of the prestigious Junior Gold Tournament.

UMES is one of four teams from the MEAC to be ranked in the NTCA Pre-Season Poll which is an increase from last year’s MEAC number of three.

“I think this year’s rankings is great for our conference and shows the strength of schedule we compete at,” Petrin says. “Going into our first tournament, we want to focus on controlling what we can control and perform with consistency. Preparation and belief will lead to confidence in our performance.”

The Hawks begin the season on October 13h at the Colonial Lanes Classic in Harahan, Louisiana. To view the 2023-24 bowling schedule.