The Saint Vincent College men’s bowling team made history in 1978 by winning the NAIA National Championship, which remains the lone national title won by a Bearcat program.
Nearly fifty years later, the Bearcat women’s bowling squad looks primed to follow in the footsteps of its male predecessor, quickly becoming one of the College’s most successful programs.
Strike Force
Story: Jim Berger | Photos: Chris Gooden
Since its establishment in fall 2017, the women’s bowling squad has amassed an overall record of 276-84 and won three Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) regular season championships. The Bearcats have posted the highest winning percentage across all NCAA classifications three times and have been regularly ranked in the National Tenpin Coaches Association (NTCA) polls.
It has been a rapid ascension for the Bearcats under Jeff Zidek, C’90, who leapt at the chance to coach the brand-new program upon its launch. Zidek boasts an impressive résumé as a competitive bowler since his youth, and at the time of the team’s birth, he was in the midst of a fifteen-year tenure as SVC’s sports information director.
“A lot of colleges were adding bowling and filling rosters,” Zidek recalled, “so Saint Vincent saw this as a great opportunity. I had a lot of experience in the sport and was already here in athletic administration at the time, so I was fortunate to be able to step right into the position.”
Despite his bowling success and in-depth knowledge of SVC athletics, he admittedly did not fully know what to expect upon entering the coaching profession for the first time and faced challenges typical of those encountered by start-up programs.
“There were definitely some challenges,” he said. “We made the decision in January 2017 to add the program, and I needed to assemble a team by October. I managed to recruit three freshmen, but the rest of our team was made up of students already on campus—a golfer, coincidentally our current golf coach Samm Firestone [C’17, C’19], and four softball players. If not for that group stepping up, we wouldn’t have been able to field a team that first year, and who knows where we would be right now.”
The Bearcat women’s bowling team took to the lanes for the first time on November 3, 2017, winning two of three matches against Hilbert College in Hamburg, New York, and would go on to post a respectable 25-26 overall record in its inaugural campaign. Along with valuable contributions from its senior student-athletes, the 2017-18 season also saw the emergence of the bowler whom Zidek considers the best to ever don the green and gold and the biggest reason for the team’s sustained success.
“We brought in a freshman, Dani (Koehler) Clark [C’21], who was a legitimate Division I prospect,” Zidek recounted. “That kind of set us in motion. We went 25-26 that year and upset a few teams that had far more experience. I was able to not only tell recruits about Dani and the program’s success, but also the fact that most of our team was graduating and I had plenty of roster spots available.”
In its second season, the team posted a 39-14 record, good for the second-highest winning percentage among all NCAA programs, before the 2019-20 team led the nation in winning percentage with a 50-7 mark and tied for first place in the AMCC. The Bearcats were now on the map, allowing Zidek to attract highly coveted recruits from across the country.
“At the Division III level, I believe you need one top-level athlete to put you on the map, and that helps you to draw in other good athletes,” he said. “Once you get the ball rolling—no pun intended—it kind of keeps going. Success breeds success at this level. The same teams tend to do well year after year in a lot of Division III sports. Dani was that athlete, and from there, the program just kept growing.”
Zidek’s squad quickly proved that its fifty-win 2019-20 season was no fluke. In the four seasons since, the Bearcats have racked up a 162-37 overall record, won fifty-one of fifty-six regular season matches against conference foes, captured each of the past three AMCC regular season championships and reached the AMCC Championship Tournament title match three times.
Having quickly established itself as a perennial power in the AMCC, the program would reach a level of national prominence in February 2023, when it entered the NCTA rankings for the first time, cracking its Division II/III national poll in the No. 13 spot. The Bearcats have remained ranked in the DII/III poll since, climbing to No. 9 in its most recent release in April.
The 1978 Saint Vincent men's bowling team celebrates their NAIA National Championship victory. Left to right: Joe Rossowski; Ron Uveges; Gary Giacobbi; Br. Pat Lacy, O.S.B.; Doug Pohland; Mike Petrarca; Jim Racosky
“If you had asked me a few years ago, I don’t know that it had much importance to me,” Zidek said of the national rankings. “But it eventually became a goal to make the poll, and now of course the goal is to stay there. Honestly, it makes recruiting a lot easier when prospective student-athletes have heard of your program, and you can show them the success you’ve had. It’s just more of the ‘success breeds success’ theory.”
After feasting on Division II and III foes over its first six seasons, Zidek made a conscious effort to beef up his team’s schedule for the 2023-24 campaign, as it faced off against Division I opponents including Mount St. Mary’s, Duquesne, Saint Francis, Morgan State, and Valparaiso.
“I set a goal for us to win one single game against a Division I team,” he said. “We went 5-2 against them. That included the match against Valparaiso, where we were down forty pins halfway through the last game and then came back to win.”
Senior Sabine Strickland, a three-year starter, said she and her teammates embraced the step up in competition.
“It was definitely intimidating at first,” she said. “Going into it, we were told to just do our best, and that’s what we did. DI teams are supposed to beat a DIII team like ours, so when we beat them, it was very satisfying. These wins make us want to continue to face high-level teams like that.”
Thanks in part to this success against Division I opponents, the Bearcats again made history in March, when they cracked the NCTA’s all-division national poll for the first time at No. 25, one of just two Division III teams to appear in the rankings. They would then maintain their No. 25 ranking in the NCTA’s final all-division poll in April.
“That was a big surprise,” said Zidek. “Most people don’t realize that NCAA bowling combines all three divisions at many events. There aren’t a lot of sports where a Division III school regularly competes against Division I programs, but in bowling, you can. To crack the top-25 this year is something that makes me extremely proud. We are ranked ahead of many full-scholarship Division I teams. That is an accomplishment, to say the least.”
“We were all really excited,” said Strickland. “It felt amazing to be recognized like that. After being ranked, it has become our goal to stay in the rankings, continue to prove that we deserve to be there, and continue to keep improving.”
The national rankings were a culmination of yet another excellent season for the Bearcats in 2023-24, as they finished 64-14 to again lead the nation in winning percentage and captured the AMCC’s regular season championship. Zidek was named the AMCC’s Co-Coach of the Year for the second time in his career, while six Bearcats landed All-AMCC honors, highlighting the depth of the Bearcat roster, as a team only fields five bowlers in a match.
In a season full of highlights, the team posted one of its biggest achievements in its history on February 9, when it threw a 299 Baker game in a win over Daemen University at Latrobe’s Lincoln Lanes.
“A Baker game,” explained Zidek, “is where you use five bowlers to combine for one score. Bowler 1 throws the first and sixth frames, bowler 2 the second and seventh, and so on. We had 11 strikes in a row and just missed on the last shot, but it was still a school record. Only a handful of teams every year throw a Baker 300 perfect game, and we just missed it.”
With the Bearcats now considered among the nation’s elite, Zidek and Strickland are both well-aware that they have a target on their back, as opponents regularly put forth their best efforts when facing SVC. This was on display first-hand at the 2024 AMCC Championship Tournament, where the Bearcats battled throughout but fell in the semifinals.
DI teams are supposed to
beat a DIII like ours,
so when we beat them, it was very satisfying.
These wins make us want to continue to
face high-level teams like that.”
“Everyone seemed to be ‘up’ for a match against us,” Zidek said. “We were very consistent all season long, but a couple of other teams really improved during the season and in bowling, anyone can beat anyone in a single match. We lost in the semifinals, but the players handled it well. We didn’t give any wins away—other teams just simply stepped up at the right time.”
‘“I think it’s great motivation,” said Strickland. “I think it makes us bowl even better when another team takes us so seriously. I love competition and hate to lose.”
Now firmly entrenched as a bowling power, expectations will understandably be high for the Bearcats as they prep for the upcoming 2024-25 season, and both Strickland and Zidek say that their team aims to capture one of the only goals that has proven elusive during a run of such sustained success—winning the AMCC tournament and advancing to the NCAA National Championship Tournament.
“This has been a long-standing ambition for all of us,” said Strickland. “As team captain, I am committed to leading by example and working collaboratively with my teammates to ensure we perform at our highest level, and I believe we have the talent and determination to achieve it this season.”
“I’m counting on the whole ‘success breeding success’ thing to keep us going,” Zidek added. “It’s worked so far, as our team season average has gone up every single year. By making the top 25, we were able to bring in what I believe is the best freshman class we’ve ever had. I expect another record year.”
Photo in header: Senior Sabine Strickland looks to capture the Bearcats first conference tournament championship.