Freshman leads Lady Bulldogs to strong finish

The Highland bowling Lady Bulldogs got a second-place individual finish from freshman Molly Marshall en route to taking fourth place as a team out of 20 competing squads at the 10th annual Abe Lincoln Invitational Saturday in Taylorville.

Marshall fired a six-game series of 1,317, which equates to a strong average of 219.5, and was only 16 pins behind champion Lauren Tomaszewski of O’Fallon’s winning six-game aggregate of 1,333.

Marshall 701 series in the afternoon ranks as the second highest series in team history, and her 265 second game in the afternoon sits sixth on the career list of highest individual games.

Marhsall also had a 243 first game in the afternoon. Her morning series was a 616 and included games of 245 and 205.

With Marshall leading the way, Highland came in fourth place and beat 16 other teams.

In addition to having the individual champion, O’Fallon was also the team champion with a total pin count of 5,904 (196.80) to beat out Collinsville Purple (5,628).

Filling out the top five were Salem (5,548), Highland (5,202) and Triad (5,178).

Senior Emma Schuster was Highland’s next best bowler with six-game series of 1,125 (187.5 average), which placed her 11th overall. Schuster bowled high games of 203, 200, 193, 192 and 187.

Also bowing good games for the Lady Bulldogs were senior Haley Basler (192, 178), senior Kali Rutz (182) and sophomore Kayla Rutz (168, 165).

Mascoutah 29, Highland 11

The Indians won 15 of the 20 team points and 14 of the 20 individual points. Mascoutah took two of the three team games and the match’s overall pin count (2,580 to 2,507).

Marshall was the match’s top individual bowler with a 629 series. She also rolled the match’s best two individual games with a 221 and 220. She also had a 188 first game.

Corynne Bean, of Mascoutah, also bowled a 600 series, finishing at 615 with games in order of 207, 210 and 198.

Also rolling decent games for the Lady Bulldogs were Basler (204) and Schuster (186, 180).

Highland 38, Roxana 2

On Wednesday, Nov. 29 in their season opener against Roxana at Poplar Junction Lanes, the Lady Bulldogs conquered all 20 of the team points after sweeping all three team games in domineering fashion and claiming the overall match’s pin count by the lopsided total of 2,563 to 1,742.

Highland also won 18 of the possible 20 individual points.

Freshman Molly Marshall made her varsity debut a memorable one and showed that she belongs with the best players in the high school sport right out of the gate. In her first-ever game, Marshall fired a 214 and continued her consistency throughout the match with games of 211 and 201 to finish with an impressive series of 626.

Senior Emma Schuster also bowled a noteworthy series with a 548 on three games of 206, 172 and 170.

Also contributing to the win by bowling good games for Highland were senior Haley Basler (191) and senior Kali Rutz (179 and 171).

Highland’s JV team swept Roxana 7-0 and received high games from freshmen Maci Pfister (197) and Sydney Basler (166).

This story was originally published December 4, 2017 at 1:29 PM with the headline "Freshman leads Lady Bulldogs to strong finish."