The Ravenna Ravens’ bowling team has their work cut out for them if they hope to continue dominating the Metro Athletic Conference. Ravenna opened its season by coming in fourth place, knocking down 3725 pins at the MAC preseason tournament last Saturday at the Spin Bowling Lanes in Kent.
“It is not where wanted to finish but we had some nerves we had to work through at the beginning which is totally normal for a new squad,” Coach Kelly Champ told The Weekly Villager. “We have two guys that have never bowled on varsity, so they were a little nervous. Even though it was our home lanes, sometimes it is not that easy.”
Sophomore Jeriah Miller knocked down 662 pins to qualify for the all-tournament MAC team, followed by sophomore Carson Schueller who knocked down 595 pins, junior Jake Stefansic scored 511, junior Mark Jones tallied 340 and sophomore Joey Smith knocked down 356 pins.
It was a wide gap between Ravenna and the top three as Akron Springfield took the preseason tournament championship, bowling a 4022, followed by Norton knocking down 3959 pins and then Akron Coventry scored 3947.
Only 75 pins separated the top three teams while the Ravens were 223 pins shy of overtaking the Comets for third place.
“Springfield came out like gangbusters on Saturday,” said the Ravens’ four-year coach. “They were phenomenal and so was Coventry, they finished last year in fifth place and they were on fire today. We have an insane conference.”
According to Champ, the Ravens’ depth was tested in the first three regular matches when they had to constantly substitute a bowler in at the fifth spot because they were struggling to knock down pins.
The Ravens bowled a 2601 in the first three games, with each bowler competing individually in a ten-frame match and then knocked down 1124 pins in the next six Baker games, where Ravenna’s five bowlers bowled two frames for each Baker game.
The top three teams each had a pair of bowlers qualify for the all-tournament conference team but Miller was the only Ravenna bowler to finish in the top seven, taking fifth overall.
“Jeriah has had moments of brilliance in the past,” Champ said. “His first match that he bowled in for us, he shot 265 right out of the gate. He has really worked on settling down and learning about his game and it showed on Saturday. He was very consistent with his ball placement which is always fantastic because you can really check and made adjustments as you need to instead of missing a mark here and being too fast here.”
Scheuller was Ravenna’s second-leading scorer, finishing only three pins shy of tying Springfield junior Wyatt Keys for seventh place.
Champ said the Ravens’ junior was in the pocket all day, constantly hitting the sweet spot between the first and third pins and setting spare attempts.
“He was getting nine counts left and right and in his second game, he only had nine counts and strikes,” she added. “It is a lot when you are getting taps like that, but he shot 243 in the third game, which was huge for us because we needed that stability at the bottom.”
Ravenna’s depth was tested with not much coming out of the fifth spot at the beginning of the tournament but Smith, who was called up from junior varsity, performed well by bowling a 356 despite only bowling in two of the three regular games.
“Last year when I had the four seniors, our bench did not really get to bowl a lot because our seniors were pretty solid,” Champ said. “With not having that stability anymore, I knew I was going to have to pull someone up, so I made sure I brought Joey too and it was a good thing because he had to bowl in the last two regular games for us and he was really solid in the Baker games.”
Champ acknowledged her team performed well when they bowled in the right lane but struggled mightily when they switched to the left lane.
“We could not hit the broad side of a barn on lane nine and it just shows the difference in how the lanes break down because we still had the same bowlers on both lanes for the regular games,” she added.
Although Ravenna’s debut was challenging, Champ said she saw plenty of good things to be encouraged about from her squad to build off.
“To me there was a lot of good on Saturday,” she said. “I saw a lot of good which was great. The way the guys were interacting with each other, bowling is so much more than a team sport, you really have to communicate and be comfortable with the people you are bowling with, and they showed that when things were good.”
The Ravens will welcome MAC rival Cloverleaf for a duel match next Thursday at Kent Spin Lanes at 3:45pm.
