The Saint Vincent women's bowling team wrapped up its 2025-26 season with its first-ever appearance in the Intercollegiate Team Championships (ITC), held at Ashwaubenon Lanes in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
The tournament opened with a 24-game Baker team block, to set seedings among the 16 teams that qualified for Nationals based on their finish in the ITC Sectionals last month. SVC finished second in the Pittsburgh Sectional to earn a trip to Green Bay.
SVC got off to a slow start, finding themselves in 15th place after the first round of four games. The team moved up a couple of spots after round two, putting together games of 212, 172, 191 and 180.
Game 9 of the afternoon was nearly one for the record books. The Bearcat lineup of
Savannah Douglass,
Kaylie Kurland,
Brooke Street,
Mareana Pilyih and
Skyy Nicholls each threw strikes on their first throws of the game. The strike string ran to 10 before a single-pin was left on the second shot of the 10th frame, leaving SVC with a 289, the highest game of the day by all teams. After finishing the block with a four-game total of 823, the Bearcats jumped to fifth place in the overall standings.
After holding fifth place through block four, the team struggled in the fifth round and dropped down to 12th place, where it eventually finished the morning session. This matched the Bearcats with Sacred Heart University, the #5 seed, in the first round of match play, which featured a single best-of-seven Baker set to determine the winner.
SVC had four open frames in game one, but managed to fight back for a 158-153 win to take a 1-0 lead. However, SHU was sharp over the next three games, putting SVC into a must-win situation in game five. SVC responded with a 9-pin win to make it 3-2, then won game six by a 221-173 margin to force a deciding seventh game. SVC fell behind by 45 pins after just four frames, but strikes by Nicholls,
Daphne Stuber and Douglass in frames 5-7 put the Bearcats in front by 3 pins. However, the team was unable to hold the lead, falling 200-183 to end the day and send the team into an elimination bracket.
The next morning, SVC faced the Savannah College of Art & Design, the #13 seed, in a must-win best-of-seven. Game one was close throughout, but SCAD pulled out a 176-175 victory to take a 1-0 lead. The Bearcats couldn't get any momentum going in the second game and quickly fell behind 2-0. The team bounced right back in game three, pulling away to a 225-158 win, then captured game four 202-175 to tie the match at 2-2.
Game five was the turning point, however, as SVC built a big early lead before SCAD mounted a comeback. Splits in two of the final three frames by the Bearcats allowed the opponents to come back for a 196-191 win, again putting SVC into a must-win game. Splits again plagued the Bearcats, with three in the first 9 frames, as SVC fell by a score of 178-161, ending the team's run at Nationals.
Overall, it was a highly successful season for the Bearcats, earning six tournament wins, a conference championship, and bids to both the NCAA Nationals and the ITC Nationals, along with numerous individual and team awards.
