Huskers Set Sights on CUSA Championship

The Nebraska women's bowling team travels to Louisiana to hunt for a Conference USA title in its first-ever appearance at the championship event, March 18-22.

The CUSA Championship gets underway at Colonial Lanes in Harahan, La., on Wednesday, March 18, at 1 p.m. (CT), before 9 a.m. (CT) starts Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Competition on championship Sunday, March 22 starts at 8:30 a.m. All of the action at the CUSA Championship will be streamed on ESPN+.

The Huskers, who enter the tournament at No. 4 in the most recent NCAA RPI, will be part of a talented 12-team field that should provide the schools with an outstanding proving ground for the upcoming NCAA Championship Qualifiers and national championships.

The CUSA Championship field feautres each of the top seven NCAA RPI teams in the nation, including No. 1 Jacksonville State, No. 2 Vanderbilt, No. 3 Arkansas State, No. 4 Nebraska, No. 5 Louisiana Tech, No. 6 Wichita State and No. 7 Youngstown State. 

Although No. 8 Maryville (Mo.) will not be in attendance, No. 9 Sam Houston, No. 10 Sacred Heart and No. 11 Wright State give the CUSA Championship field 10 of the top 11 RPI teams in the country. No. 18 Tulane and No. 20 Valparaiso round out the 12 top-20 RPI teams in the field. 

The Huskers will be making their first appearance in a conference tournament of any kind since becoming a varsity sport at Nebraska in 1997-98. The Big Red joined CUSA as an affiliate member for bowling on Aug. 4, 2025. They join Wright State and Sacred Heart as affiliate members in the nation's premier bowling conference. which has produced back-to-back NCAA champions in Jacksonville State (2024) and Youngstown State (2025).

Nebraska owns eight national championships in program history, including six NCAA titles beginning with the first two NCAA Championships in history with back-to-back crowns in 2004 and 2005. The Huskers won their most recent NCAA title under Coach Paul Klempa in 2021.

Nebraska will be making its second trip to Harahan, La., this season after taking fourth at the Colonial Lanes Classic hosted by Tulane (Nov. 21-23).

Husker Haley Swindle earned a spot on the Colonial Lanes Classic All-Tournament team earlier this season. The sophomore from Coweta, Ga., hopes to contribute in a big way again to help the Huskers challenge for a CUSA championship.

Swindle was one of three Huskers to finish among the top-12 individuals at the NCA&T Stallings Invitational in Nebraska's most recent tournament in Greensboro, N.C. (Feb. 27-March 1). Swindle (199.20) took 11th, behind teammates Jillian Martin (9th, 200.20) and Karina Capron (10th, 199.80). 

Martin, the 2025 NTCA Bowler of the Year, will lead the Big Red to its first CUSA tournament pushing for her fourth consecutive NTCA All-America award at Nebraska. The senior from Stow, Ohio, owns a team-high 220.10 average on the season - nearly four pins per game better than her average (216.15) in 2024-25.  

Martin put up a season-best 232.67 average to take first individually at the Big Red Invitational (Feb. 20-22). It was her fourth top-five individual showing of the season. Martin was the CUSA Bowler of the Month in October. She did not bowl in the Colonial Lanes Classic in November, as she was competing with Team USA at the time. 

Capron, a sophomore from Fremont, Neb., has added a solid 203.60 average on the year, while Brenna Hartzler has contributed a 209.60 average to rank second among the Huskers behind only Martin. Hartzler, a junior from Smithville, Ohio, was an honorable-mention All-American as a freshman for the Huskers in 2024, before finishing with a strong 205.39 average last season.