Top-Ranked Huskers Open Season at Greater Ozark Invitational

Top-Ranked Huskers Open Season at Greater Ozark Invitational
The No. 1 Nebraska bowling team will open its 2009-10 bowling campaign with the Greater Ozark Invitational in Springfield, Mo., this weekend. The two-day tournament is slated to begin at noon on Saturday, Oct. 25, with five team games. Competition will continue on Sunday, Oct. 25, at 8 a.m. with Baker-match play.

The Huskers will take on nine other teams at the tournament, including seven nationally-ranked teams. No. 2 Vanderbilt, No. 4 Central Missouri, No. 7 Arkansas State, No. 12 Minnesota State-Mankato, No. 14 Southern, No. 17 Elmhurst and No. 20 Valparaiso are among the Greater Ozark competitors.

The traveling team roster for the competition includes seniors Kaleena Henning and Cassandra Leuthold, juniors Danielle van der Meer, Jasmine Laugerman and Katie Ann Sopp, sophomore Valerie Calberry and redshirt freshman Kristina Mickelson.

Following the Greater Ozark Invitational, Nebraska will host its first tournament in 10 years with the Big Red Invitational at Sun Valley Lanes in Lincoln, Neb., on Nov. 5-7. The Big Red Invitational will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5, with competition continuing at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 6. The last session of the competition will begin at 8 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7.

Nebraska Bowling Team Looks to Defend NCAA Crown
The Nebraska bowling team enters the 2009-10 season with high hopes of defending its 2009 NCAA title. For the first time in nearly nine years, the team returns every bowler from the previous season. NU returns all five starters from the 2009 NCAA Championship squad and will add two newcomers to the mix.

"With everybody returning and two excellent players coming in as recruits, we have 12 players who can help the program succeed," Nebraska Coach Bill Straub said. "However, only five spots are playing at once, so that means the competition should be fierce."

The 2009-10 season may be a year of firsts for the Nebraska bowling team, as the Huskers will host a tournament for the first time since the 1999-2000 season and only the second in Husker history. Nebraska last hosted the Great Plains Classic at Sun Valley Lanes Feb. 25-27, 2000.

This season, NU will take to Sun Valley Lanes Nov. 5-7 for the Big Red Invitational, which features eight of the nation's top bowling programs, including Vanderbilt, Central Missouri, Arkansas State, Minnesota State-Mankato, Valparaiso, Prairie View A&M, Elmhurst and Nebraska.

"The biggest part of the early season is for the first time since it's been all-NCAA that we're going to host an event," Straub said. "Hosting an event will hopefully give the people of Nebraska an opportunity to view what's been going on around the country for a number of years - that being the success of the Nebraska bowling program. I hope the team will also succeed while we're hosting it. I think we have an opportunity we haven't had in the past to showcase what goes on around here. Hopefully that will be something that will bode well in the future and maybe we can build a foundation of hosting future events."

In addition to competing in Nebraska, the team will travel to competitions all over the country. The Huskers will begin at the Greater Ozark Invitational in Springfield, Mo., in October and will wrap up their fall season with the Capital City Collegiate Classic in Jackson, Miss. The Huskers will start back up in mid-January for the Mid-Winter Classic at Cabot, Ark. NU will then travel to three tournaments in February, including the Griffin Invitational in St. Louis, Mo., the Morgan State Invitational in Baltimore, Md., and the Holiday Classic in Birmingham, Ala. The Huskers will round out regular-season competition at the Music City Classic in Nashville, Tenn., before defending their NCAA crown at the 2010 NCAA Championships in North Brunswick, N.J.

Although the 2008-09 Nebraska team fought hard to capture the 2009 NCAA title, the team had a bumpy road to the top.

"As much success as the team had last year, it would have been hard to predict the team would be as successful with so many new players, including international students," Straub said. "It took a long time in the season for them to really gel as a unit. Fortunately for the program in general, they did their best when it counted the most."

With all 10 of last season's bowlers returning to the 2009-10 team, Nebraska will be more unified as a team.

Two seniors headline this season's roster, including three-time NCAA All-American Cassandra Leuthold and two-time Nebraska captain Kaleena Henning.

Leuthold, a senior from Blackhawk, S.D., ended last season with first-team All-America accolades and 2009 NCAA Championship Most Valuable Player honors. She captured three 2009-10 regular-season tournament titles, giving Leuthold a total of seven career titles. After the 2009 NCAA Championship, Leuthold competed at the Junior Gold. In addition to her successes in collegiate bowling, Leuthold earned a spot on the 2009-10 Junior Team USA squad after finishing third at the USBC Junior Gold Championships during the summer of 2009.

Nebraska's own Kaleena Henning, a senior from North Platte, brings vast leadership to the 2009-10 roster. Henning has been named team captain back-to-back seasons at Nebraska. Last season, she competed in six tournaments including the 2009 NCAA Championships. Henning's successes also carry over to the classroom, as she has been named to the Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll three times and earned honorable-mention NTCA All-Academic honors in 2008.

Four juniors remain on Nebraska's roster, including Minnesota powerhouses Jasmine Laugerman, Katie Ann Sopp and Kayla Stram, and Danielle van der Meer, a junior from Hilversum, The Netherlands.

Laugerman, from Brooklyn Center, Minn., competed in every tournament during the 2008-09 season, including the NCAA Tournament. Following the championships, Laugerman captured two Minnesota Junior Bowlers Tour titles in June and July.

Sopp, from Circle Pines, Minn., earned two top-three finishes on the 2008-09 season, including a second-place finish at the Capital City Collegiate Classic. Immediately following the 2009 NCAA Championships, Sopp topped the Minnesota Junior Bowlers Tour event in April.

Stram, a junior from Grand Rapids, Minn., also did well at the Minnesota Junior Bowlers Tour, as she won the May event. Stram competed in seven competitions for the Huskers during the 2008-09 season, including the 2009 NCAA Championships.

Van der Meer adds international experience to the junior class, as she is a three-time member of the Dutch National Team and was a member of the Dutch National Youth Team for three years. In her first year at Nebraska, van der Meer claimed two top-five finishes and four top-10 finishes. She rounded out her stellar season by being named to the NCAA All-Tournament team and earning NTCA Third-Team All-America honors.

Valerie Calberry and Erin McCarthy comprise Nebraska's outstanding sophomore class. Calberry, a sophomore from Brampton, Ontario, is a member of the Canadian National Team and will also provide valuable international experience. Calberry competed in 52 games on the regular season, including games at the 2009 NCAA Championships, where she earned a spot on the NCAA All-Tournament team. She also earned third-team NTCA All-America honors for her success on the lanes.

McCarthy, an Omaha, Neb., native, was the only NU newcomer last season to earn a first-place finish at a competition. Her season-high average of 236 at the Capital City Collegiate Classic was the best among any Husker during the 2008-09 season. Both Calberry and McCarthy will be strong contributers to the 2009-10 lineup.

Nebraska natives Chelsey Mero and Kristina Mickelson both redshirted their first season at Nebraska. The duo will provide depth to the 2009-10 lineup.

The team added two newcomers to the roster - Shalima Zalsha and Kayla Johnson.

Zalsha, a freshman from Jakarta, Indonesia, comes to Nebraska as a five-year member of the Indonesian National Team, where she helped her team to a silver medal at the South East Asian Games in 2007. She is a nine-time national champion and a second-place finisher at the Asian Bowling Federation Tournament of Champions.

Johnson joins the Nebraska squad upon transferring from Illinois Central College. She competed in the adult Team USA trials in the fall of 2008 and has bowled a career-high game of 300 and a career-high series of 802.

With a blend of bowlers from across the world, including three international athletes and nine Great Plains natives, Nebraska has the right ingredients to contend for back-to-back NCAA Championships.