BY GERARDO BOLONG

Contributing Writer

FEDERAL WAY - Lane rustiness contributed to a slow start before the Kennedy Catholic girls bowling struck back to gain a 2 1/2 - 2 1/2 NPSL 4A draw with Todd Beamer High School at Secoma Lanes on Wed., Jan. 3.

"It was a tough start," said Lancer head coach Steve Woodcock. "Christmas Break and the holidays. The girls did bowl with their families, but we scheduled one practice. It was hard for them to get back to it."

Led by the 176 of Becca Francis, the host Titans took advantage of the KC girls' inability to make spares to bolt into the lead early en route to a 661-601 pin fall win.

With Francis' scoring cooling off, Kennedy Catholic fared much better in the second game, converting spares and getting better pin counts, overall, to lead 307-295 after five full frames.

After the Lancers increased their lead to 50 pins at one point,Todd Beamer gradually cut into the Kennedy lead, but the Burien-based squad still enjoyed a slim margin going into the ninth and tenth frames. 

TB bowled well in the tenth and was poised to capture the second game with this closing rush until KC cleanup bowler Saryn Good performed well, sparing in the tenth and knocking down eight pins on her fill ball shot for a game high 158 that deadlocked the teams at 630 each.

"I try not to look at the score," she said. "I take a deep breath and just think about what I'm doing. There's a lot of stress, but bowling is really fun. I like it."

In order to capture the total team victory, the Lancers now had to overcome a 60-pin deficit, as well as sweep the two Baker format team games.

Kennedy Catholic put together a 132-95 Baker win to close within 23 pins to create a scene for possible team victory.

Kennedy then rolled a team 158 in the second Baker game, but Beamer scored 142 to barely hold on to total pinfall 1,328-1,321, thus  earning the point that knotted the end team standoff.

Kennedy returns to Federal Way on Tues., Jan. 9, against Federal Way High School at Secoma in a 3 p.m. start.