Girls Singles Finals: Four Strikes
March 4, 2012
BATTLE CREEK – Ann Arbor Huron freshman Allison Morris has been in pressure situations before.
She’s an accomplished youth bowler, and she’s bowled in matches with the Huron boys team. But not much could prepare her for the deficit she found herself in during the MHSAA Division 1 Girls Singles championship match Saturday at M-66 Bowl.
Morris trailed Clinton Township Chippewa Valley junior Kristen Young by 50 pins heading into the second game of the two-game singles match, and was rattled.
“I was kind of out of it. I didn’t know what to do, but my coaches just said don’t worry about it; bowl like you know how to do. Throw strikes. You can do it.”
Fans were scoreboard watching as Morris mounted her comeback. But she was unaware of the ground she made up in game two.
Morris ended with four straight strikes to finish with 224 and the first bowling title for Huron High School.
“I wasn’t looking at the score. I had no clue, I thought I was down. It was really nerve-wracking,” she said.
“It feels really good. I’m just really happy that I came back and won it.”
Division 2 at Century Lanes
WATEFORD – Tecumseh’s girls now have three Singles champions in nine years of bowling being an MHSAA-sponsored sport.
But even after reaching the Semifinals last season as a freshman, Jordan Richard never expected to become that third winner from her school – or second from her family.
With sister and 2010 champion Kara Richard cheering her on, Jordan finished first in qualifying and then edged reigning champion Lindsay Ploof of Flint Kearsley 425-413 in the Semifinal. Richard defeated Flint Northwestern’s Alonna Tipton 469-382 in the championship match – winning their first game by 15 and second by just two pins.
“Going into today, I never imagined winning. There are a lot of girls out there that are just as good as I am,” Richard said. “Everyone always says I’m following in (Kara’s) footsteps. But it’s really good to have Kara there behind me."
Tecumseh also finished runner-up to Ploof’s Kearsley team in Friday’s Team Final.
"Going into yesterday’s finals, we weren't expecting to win,” Richard said. “Flint Kearsley is a great team. We're all sophomores. So yesterday was just a learning experience, and I learned from it and took it to today."
Division 3 at Airport Lanes
JACKSON – Wyoming Kelloggsville was not going to leave Airport Lanes without an MHSAA championship. After Saturday’s Singles Semifinals, that became guaranteed.
The Rockets fell in Friday’s team Semifinals, ending their 2011 title defense. But on Saturday, seniors Chelsey Purdum and Jessica Lubbers faced off in the Singles Final.
Purdum, last season’s runner-up, edged Lubbers – the 2010 Singles champion – with a two-game score of 370-353.
“While this is my last year of high school bowling, I have been blessed at Kelloggsville High School to have talented bowlers year after year,” Purdum said. “And to go out with a state championship and runner-up is unbelievable.”
Purdum will continue her bowling career next season at Grand View University in Iowa.
Division 4 at Century Lanes
WATERFORD – Unionville Sebewaing's Kyleigh McCarthy was the only freshman to make the Division 4 match play Sunday.
She had to wait an extra day to compete -- a power outage at Sunnybrook Lanes pushed the Singles Final back a day -- line up to bowl at a different center, and then take on the favorite in the championship match.
None of that seemed to bother her.
McCarthy scored her first MHSAA title in her first high school season, defeating Sandusky senior Lillie Miller 342-332 in the Final. Miller, a senior, also was runner-up in 2011.
PHOTO of final eight match players at the Division 1 Final. Click for detailed results from all MHSAA Singles Finals.
Top Seeds Take D2 Top Honors
March 2, 2013
By Sarah Dorow
Special for Second Half
WATERFORD – History was made Saturday in Waterford as Jordan Richard, a junior from Tecumseh, became the first MHSAA Finals back-to-back singles champion.
"It's amazing," Richards said. "We wanted it as a team, too, but unfortunately it didn't work out so well."
She led the qualifying block with a score of 1,370 and high game of 268.
On her journey back to the finals she ousted number 16 seed Samantha Eldridge from Owosso (424-375), the eighth seed Samantha Knight from Richland Gull Lake (427-381) and Kayla Emmendorfer, the fourth seed from Flint Kearsley (425-400).
The last bowler who stood in the way of Richard's back-to-back championships was sixth-seeded senior Sabrina Senninger from Grand Rapids Northview.
In the semifinal round, Senninger knocked out Richard's teammate, junior Lauren McKowen, by a single pin.
But after the excitement, Senninger had to prepare to face the top-seeded defending champion.
"I knew that I would be going against Jordan, and I just told myself I needed to bowl my best and do what I could," Senninger said
And that included leaning on her fans for support.
"I think having my parents and family there definitely helped,” she added.
However, Richard's experience proved too much and she beat Senninger 450-326.
With her senior year on the horizon, Richard already is looking ahead toward a three-peat and what she plans to work on in the offseason.
"Spares, because I've been struggling with my 10 pin lately, and I've missed quite a few this weekend," she said.
This was the fourth MHSAA singles championship won by a Tecumseh bowler over the past five seasons. In addition to Richard's win in 2012, her older sister, Kara Richard, won in 2010 and Tawni Vollmer took the title for the Indians in 2009.
Holly's Andrew Anderson didn't begin competing this season until six weeks ago. But his credentials spoke for themselves: He had made the top 16 singles at the MHSAA tournament his freshman year, the quarterfinals his sophomore year, and is a member of the 2012 Junior Team USA.
The senior made the most of his Finals opportunity and beat Bay City John Glenn junior Alex Ouellette for the singles championship Saturday.
After the morning qualifier, which included a 299 game, Anderson was sitting in first with Ouellette second.
But Anderson and Ouellette, who also had made it to the quarterfinals before, knew positioning didn't guarantee a win.
"I just knew that qualifying didn't mean anything because if you bowl against the 16th or the first, they're still good bowlers, and you have to go out and do your own thing and make shots," Ouellette said.
Ouellette was able to lean on his strength of making spares and eased his way into the finals while Anderson was almost knocked out in the quarterfinals by Sault Ste. Marie senior Nick Beatty with a nail-biting score of 415-412.
"I was ahead and he, just like the match before, he came out striking 246 against me," Anderson said. "But I knew that I was going to have a chance being up by 40 pins. He gave me a chance to throw the first one and shut him out."
Once in the finals, Anderson had the carry and threw the first 10 strikes.
"You know the bowling gods liked me today,” he said. “Let's just say that."
While Anderson was striking, Ouellette applied his own strategy and did not watch his opponent's shots.
"You can't do anything about what the other person does, so if they go through the nose or throw a good strike it doesn't matter," Ouellette said. "It's still a strike. You can't do anything about how they throw it."
In the end, Anderson’s 289 game to start the finals match proved too much to overcome, and he beat Ouellette 518-406.
With Anderson ending his high school career on a high note, junior Ouellette is looking to do the same next year.
"I want to win it," said Ouellette. "So I'm going to use this as motivation that I've gotten here, I've gotten close and I know what it takes to win."
Click for full girls results and boys results.
