By: Stacey Gorski
The Monroe Township High School girls’ bowling teams saw their season end in a flash on Tuesday night, when they lost the first two games of a best two-out-of-three match against third seed Cartaret in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament. The match dropped their record to 4-14.
For sophomore bowler Samantha Beyer and her teammates, it was a tough end to difficult season.
"We were seeded 14th, I think," Beyer said, "Carteret is tough especially when you wind up bowling just two games."
Beyer rolled a 235 total for the two games, while fellow sophomore Kristin Bjornsen totaled 260 pins in her two games. However, it was sophomore Robyn Grant (288) and junior Lori Sonenblum (286) who led the way.
"It’s been hard because Lori is so good," Beyer said, "But she can’t always be there to bowl. Then we have to depend more on the JV bowlers and it’s hard."
Beyer said that she feels slightly more pressure when Sonenblum can’t be there.
"It depends," she said, "I just try to do my best, but I also realize that some of us need to be twice as good as usual to pick up the slack."
There was slightly less slack this year, as the girls did manage one more win than last season.
"We improved a lot more than from last year," Beyer said, "Basically, we are all sophomores and we will have one senior next year."
To Beyer, the idea that all her teammates are returning is an encouraging one, but there is still more to be done.
"We have just six or seven people this year," she said, "And even though we are returning a lot of people next year, we can’t always depend on everyone to be there, so I would like to get at least 15 people interested in next season."
The path to next season is not cleared yet, as the girls will compete in a tournament at Cavalier Lanes on Feb. 13. All the usual suspects, Woodbridge, Edison and Cartaret, will be there.
"I am not sure that we will actually be competing as Monroe High School," Beyer said, "We’re just going to go."
She added that head coach George Packard mentioned the tournament and suggested that the girls get a group together and go compete.
"He also said that most teams that have had a bad season don’t want to compete," Beyer said, "They just want to go home. Our team still wants to try."
The girls have been competing well all season. Their goals have changed little: they still seek to bowl over 2100 pins each time they set foot in the lanes.
"We’ve done it," Beyer said, "We have good days and bad dayswe’ve played a lot of really difficult teams, but we try to help each other get better."
Beyer indicated that the girls, though most of them are the same age, try to direct one another toward improving their game.
"We don’t yell at each other or anything," Beyer said, "We just try to advise each other. Some people want to listen and some don’t."
Thus far, they are certainly taking the word of their coach to heart, as they will keep competing and practicing together over the course of the next few weeks.
"It’s a two week lay-off until the tournament," Beyer said, "I want to keep trying harder, knowing we have a chance to get better.
CHANGING LANES: The boys’ bowling team was upset in the first round of the GMC by South Brunswick High School. More coverage of their final run to the top of the White division will be in next week’s addition.
