Mason Leads Huskers in Nashville

Sophomore Gazmine Mason led the No. 1-rated Nebraska women's bowling team at the Music City Classic, held in Nashville this weekend. Mason, a Cranston, R.I., native placed first in the individual standings, earning MVP honors with an average of 230 in the three-day-event.

There was no official team champion crowned during the tournament, because the format of the competition was forced to be modified late last week when bad weather forced some previously entered teams to miss the event and others to arrive on Saturday morning. Because of the modification, no official team champion can be crowned per NCAA rule.

Despite there not being an official team champion, the Huskers performed very well in the 23-team tournament, finishing with a 11-3 match play record, including going 4-0 Sunday to place first in the final day of competition.

Nebraska assistant coach Paul Klempa was pleased with how the team performed, mentioning that team did very well during Sunday's competition, after struggling some Saturday.

“This has been such a successful season, Friday we bowled pretty well, yesterday we struggled, but today we did very well—its the trivial-- all is well—ends well,” Klempa said. “Right now we ended on a very high note, everything is in front of us at this point.”

Klempa added that the team has a few things it can work on before the NCAA Tournament, but mentioned that anything is possible with this team.

“We kind of know what we need to do between now and if we are lucky enough to make nationals. If we can make the right corrections and do the right things, sky is the limit, the team is very deep and talented.”

Working on hitting spares is something Klempa really wants the Huskers to work on during their break until the NCAA Selection Show (March 25), as leaving open frames on the lanes has been something NU has been struggling with all season.

“We need to work on our spare shooting. In golf you would call it your short game, a putting type kind of thing,” Klempa said. “When you miss one or two, that third one seems very difficult, A lot of it is confidence, in riding the confidence—single pin spares become easy. so that is something some of our players are struggling with. It is in-opportune open frames. “

Seniors Liz Kuhlkin and Andrea Ruiz also performed well for the Huskers, as the two competed in their last regular season tournament of their NU careers. Kuhlkin placed 12th individually with a 213 average, and Ruiz compiled an average of 195 over the weekend respectively, but it was the duos senior leadership in tough spots that was most impressive to Klempa.

“Both Andrea and Liz have had tremendous careers as Huskers, they both have represented this university extremely well,” Klempa said.

The Nebraska bowling team will now wait until March 25, for the NCAA Women's Bowling Selection Show. Check back at Huskers.com for updates.