Huskers Finish Third at Kat Klash

The NTCA second-ranked Nebraska women’s bowling team finished competition Sunday morning at the Track Kat Klash, in Houston, Texas. The Huskers finished third in the 19-team field, after three teams could not make it to the three-day tournament due to inclement weather on the East Coast.

Tournament host Sam Houston State made changes to the weekend format after the schools could not make the trip. Instead of a traditional Baker’s format tournament, the three-day-event used total pinfall to determine a winner.

Nebraska Interim Head Coach Paul Klempa had no problem with the format change, noting that with weather impacting the East Coast, the format change was ‘welcomed’ by the Huskers.

“They changed the tournament format with all that weather that hit the East this week, so the first day we only had 18 teams there, before the 19th came for Saturday and Sunday,” (Originally 22 teams) Klempa said. “Because of the uncertainty of the teams, they went with an easier format, which is to determine a winner off of total weekend pinfall, making Arkansas State the winner.”

Klempa mentioned that the Huskers had to fight hard this weekend, as the Huskers finished with a total pinfall of 14,552, behind tournament champion Arkansas State (15,449) and second-place Stephen F. Austin University (14,606).

“This weekend was a bit of a struggle most of the time,” Klempa said. “I think the girls fought really hard, they tried to play smart, play hard and they tried to do the right things so that is why I think it went as well as it did.”

All-in-all, Coach Klempa was happy with how the weekend ended, even though he believes the team prepared much better heading into the tournament than how they finished.

“We got third, and went 10-5 in match play so it was ok, the team fought hard enough to make it respectable but it was a grind most of the time,” Klempa said. “I think the preparation coming into this weekend was much better than the result, but it could have been worse. The girls didn’t give up and they kept scratching and clawing to get us in an ok position to finish respectably.”

The Nebraska women’s bowling team will be back in action at the Central Missouri Invitational in Kansas City, Mo., Friday Feb. 28 thru March 2. Check back here at Huskers.com for updates revolving around the Husker women’s bowling team.

Huskers Move up to No. 2 Nationally

The Nebraska women’s bowling team jumped up four spots to grab the No. 2 spot nationally in the February NTCA Coaches poll. The Huskers sit at an adjusted point standing of 613, behind No. 1 ranked Arkansas State University (698).

The Huskers received two first-place votes, compared to the 21 received by the Red Wolves. Nebraska is now 48-22 on the year after the Track Kat Klash in Houston.