Struggles met with optimism

The consensus among Sterling and Dixon bowlers Monday afternoon at Blackhawk Lanes? There are bigger fish to fry.

The Golden Warriors (6,380 pins) and Duchesses (6,312) took third and fourth, respectively, at the Northern Illinois Big-12 Conference tournament. Morris rolled to the tourney title with 6,528 and DeKalb took second (6,380), just five pins ahead of Sterling.

“This, quite frankly, was one of our poorest showings of the year,” Sterling coach Dennis Black said. “But there’s a lot in front of us that’s more important.”

“We care a lot more about sectionals,” Sterling senior Katie Sivits said.

Sivits’ classmate and Sterling anchor Heather Wolf rolled a 668 – the highest three-game series of the day – during the first session, but knocked down just 555 in the second. Meanwhile, after rolling a first series of 454, Sivits opened a team-high second series of 591 with a 216, during which she left no frames open.

“It’s funny, our strong bowlers were strong in the morning and the ones who struggled threw very well in the afternoon,” Black said.

“When the lanes dried up a little bit, I was more in my element,” Sivits said. “I was much more confident in the afternoon. I’m proud of myself that I pulled through and made up for the morning when I struggled.”

The Duchesses’ sails were full heading into the break, as they trailed DeKalb by just 11 pins after three games. But their combined total of 990 pins in Game 4 slid them down to fourth place, 192 pins out of first.

“We might have been better off to not have the break,” Lacoursiere said, laughing. “They just got a little bit wild and couldn’t hit their targets.”

After starting her day with a pair of 202s and making a nice recovery to salvage a 174 in the third game, freshman Emily Quaco threw a 143 in the fourth.

“She’s only going to get better as she gets more mature and learns to control her emotions, and right now she’s her own worst enemy in that aspect,” Lacoursiere said. “She puts a lot of pressure on herself, and she’s gotten so much better since the beginning of the year. We’ve got a great team this season, but for the next few years, we’ll be building our team around her.”