JACKSON, MISS. – A well-planned celebration with water guns, buckets of water and silly string caught head bowling coach Karen Couvillon off guard as she carried her 2002 Southwestern Athletic Conference Coach of the Year trophy out to the van as she tried to avoid a recurrence of last year celebration again.
“The most difficult thing for me was deciding who was going to start. I have so many skillful bowlers so when picking, I just try to keep the team unified. Also my freshmen are so outstanding it is just amazing,” said Couvillon.
The Lady Jaguars came home as Southwestern Athletic Conference Bowling Champions after dominating the tournament. Third ranked Jackson State hosted the tournament in Jackson, Miss. February 15 and 16 at Cotton Bowl lanes. As well as an awards banquet that SU dominated by winning the most awards for having top bowling averages. Juniors Leigh Buickerood, Reynika Tillery and freshmen Erin Williams received awards for having over a 190 bowling average. Juniors Bernadette Wooley, Lyndsey Stewart and freshmen Crystal Alexander all received awards for averaging 180 and over.
“This is a great repeat. We worked as a team and I am proud of all my team mates we held each other up when we were down,” said senior Stewart.
As the national anthem played the Lady Jaguars looked very confident knowing that over half of the top ten bowlers on were on their team. With excitement, the first match of the tournament began with Southern bowling against second ranked Jackson State. The Lady Jaguars eased through singles winning all three matches beating the Lady Tigers 2851 pins to 2428. On the other end of the bowling ally, Grambling whipped up on the SWAC western division top Alabama A & M Lady Bulldogs in singles. Doubles however left the Jaguars with a little worry on their faces. JSU stepped their game up a notch, beating Southern in doubles by 72 pins. However, the Jaguars did not die easy. In the last match of the day the Jaguars went in for the kill. The Jaguars finished JSU off by defeating them in all five games of baker. This gave them the win over JSU 5151 to 4460. Grambling also defeated Alabama A&M in doubles and baker games, to be the new set of Tigers facing Southern for the Championship title.
“We stepped up as a whole this year because there is no ‘I’ in team and that is how we all improved this year,” said Wooley.
Southern wrapped up the second day of the tournament dragging the Tigers across the oily lanes. While JSU and Alabama A&M bowled for third and fourth place. Southern breezed through singles finishing the match with a 135-pin lead. All six of the Jaguars opening the first games of double outstandingly knocking down over 200 pins each. Stewart, Tillery and Alexander continued to beat the Lady Tigers, bowling 200 games. Southern went to win doubles and baker. Southern finished the tournament beating Grambling 4975 to 4501. At the same time, JSU fought hard for the third place spot over the Lady Bulldogs.
As the Jaguars cheered for another victory, the award ceremony began.
The first award given was for the SWAC First Team All -Tournament, which Jaguars Stewart and Wooley received awards. Alexander received awards for the Second Team and MVP of the tournament. Respectfully receiving honorable mention was Buickerood.
The road however does not stop here for Southern.
They go on to national qualifiers and if they place in the top for of their tournament, they will be on their way to nationals.
