Story And Photo Courtesy OF GCU.
The Grand Canyon University Men's Bowling team traveled to Fresno, California over the weekend for their first pair of United States Bowling Congress tournaments of the season, finishing third and first overall in the West Coast Collegiate Championships I and II, respectively.
West Coast Collegiate Championships I
Teams were seeded by total pinfall after the 32 games into a bracket of 12, one that the Lopes found themselves atop. GCU's first seed allowed them a first-round bye in the bracket that was formatted in a three-game, total pinfall style. In the round of eight, the Lopes defeated the University of Nevada Las Vegas before falling to the University of California-Davis in the semifinals. The third-place finish still allowed the Lopes to secure first-place points in the USBC rankings - due to GCU's total pinfall number of 7408.
GCU captain Josh Molloy finished first individually with 966 total pins dropped.
"It was a great start for our weekend, but it was also good that we got pushed by another talented team early," said GCU Head Coach Ben Canfield. "It made us come back stronger the next day."
West Coast Collegiate Championships II
Each match was worth one point, and the team with the most points at the end of the 12 matches walked away with the top rank. San Jose State University quickly jumped out to a lead - thanks to a hot start, but GCU hung in and caught them at the end of game 35, earning the first-place ranking by 13 pins and finishing as the top seed. The 12th and final game was a positional match between top-ranked GCU and second-ranked Arizona State University, which the Lopes won to remain undefeated on the day.
GCU sophomore Alex Hartman finished third (for the second day in a row) with 663 total pins dropped.
"Our guys responded really well this weekend," said Canfield. "Some of our newer bowlers stepped up in big ways, and I'm excited to see what they do for the rest of the season."
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GCU Comes Up Short Against ASU.
One of the few times that team depth was a blessing AND a curse.
Spending much of the day facing off against the same Sun Devil varsity players, the Grand Canyon University Bowling teams fell behind early against Arizona State University in the two programs' 7th Annual Grudge Match and couldn't make up the ground in a 16-13 loss Saturday afternoon at Via Linda Bowling Lanes in Scottsdale. Following the removal of the bowling lanes from Thunder Alley this summer, it was the first time in the event's history that it was not was held on the GCU campus, instead utilizing ASU's home facility. It was the Sun Devils' third straight win in the series.
Despite the final tally, if anything, the way the tournament played out actually fortified the Lopes' braintrust's belief in how well-built the 2022-23 versions are. Because the ASU squad didn't have a women's team Saturday, the GCU Women's Bowling teams faced off against the ASU men's squads in trios and doubles Baker matches – as did the GCU Men's Bowling team. At the end of that part of the event, the Lopes led ASU, 11-10.
Once the tournament turned to the 5-man Team Baker matches, the Lopes' Men's JV1 and JV2 teams and Lopes' Women's team faced off against ASU Men's teams that had several of the Sun Devils' varsity players sprinkled in due to a roster much shorter than GCU's. ASU won six of the seven matches between the three sets of squads, so by the time the Lopes' Men's Varsity team took the lanes for the final matches of the day and swept ASU's varsity in all three, the deficit was too much to overcome.
"What that showed me was that our depth – top to bottom – was as strong as I'd hoped I'd see," said Lopes' Head Bowling Coach Ben Canfield. "That's not just something that could be an advantage when we face ASU again, but beneficial from our next tournament in California on through the season."
The Lopes' Men's Varsity squad now has two weeks to go over what it learned before heading west to Fresno, California, for their regular season opener: the two-day West Coast Collegiate Championships on November 5 and 6. The next matchup for both the Lopes' Women's Bowling team and the men's JV teams will be on Wednesday, November 9 against Ottawa University in Surprise.
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