WICHITA, Kan. — It's not too familiar of a feeling for the Newman women's bowling team to have its season conclude before the middle of April.
That's why last year just didn't sit right for the Jets, who missed participating in the Intercollegiate Team Championships for just the second time in their program history, and why this year's edition came out with a goal of still bowling this week, as the ITC comes to Northrock Lanes in Wichita Thursday-Saturday.
"I think last year kind of left a sour taste in our mouths," senior Brooke Punteney said. "Especially for the seniors, because we've been here for four years and we're ready to go out with a bang. We're all back from last year, and we said that we were going to go out the way we wanted to go out."
The Jets open up competition Thursday morning at 8 with 24 baker games to slot the 16 teams into the match play bracket. The field is broken up into two eight-team, double-elimination brackets, with each matchup a best-of-seven baker games to determine a winner. Newman will play in the first round of match play at 4:45 p.m., with the possibility of playing all day Thursday and Friday.
Winners from the two brackets meet in the national championship match Saturday morning at 11, which is a best-of-five series that will be taped for later broadcast on CBS Sports Network.
After stumbling a bit at last year's sectional qualifier — the Jets still finished sixth, just two spots and 126 total pins out of qualifying for nationals — they came back with a fury this year, improving with each tournament all season. That culminated in an impressive showing at the Las Vegas sectional last month, where they won the section by nearly 400 pins and put up the top qualifying score of any of the four sectionals across the country.
"I think everybody knew in their hearts that we were good enough to make it to nationals," Kelly Machacek said. "At the beginning of the year, our goal was to make nationals and win a national championship, and we've definitely put in the work to do that. We're just trying to capitalize on that now.
It is the 11th appearance at the national tournament for the Jets in their 13-year history, and although they have two individual national champions, they're still searching for their first team title.
Newman finished in the top eight at all 11 tournaments it participated in this season, including a third-place finish at the Hoosier Classic, where 12 of the 16 teams in the national field were in attendance.
"It's definitely exciting," Machacek said. "I know we've used a lot of the things we learned at the last two tournaments kind of as preparation for nationals, and I think we've done a good job of keeping our attitudes up and staying focused.
"It's just about making the next shot, and as long as we keep doing that, I think we're going to do great."
