LIVERPOOL – Right from the start of the Section III girls bowling team tournament at Flamingo Bowl in Liverpool, Baldwinsville challenged for championship honors.
When all was settled, though, the Bees found itself second in Class A and Division I, just missing out on an opportunity at a second state championship in program history.
Much like the boys sectional tournament a week earlier, the new format for 2025 involved four games of team competition to determine class titles before the top four finishers in Division I (large school) and Division II (small school) advanced to an elimination round.
B’ville opened with a 918 score in the first game just 13 pins behind Rome Free Academy, but fell to an 875 in the second game before it peaked with a third-game 975.
In that third game Sam Hass shot a 268, the best individual game of the entire tournament. Morgan Diecuch had a 210, with Lizzy Hildreth putting up a 196 and Ashlee LaVeck posting 179.
A fourth-game 861 meant that the Bees had an aggregate of 3,629, second in Class A as RFA finished with 3,723. Fulton made its way to third place with 3,589 and Whitesboro was fourth with 3,524.
The elimination round would follow the same “Baker” format as the boys did, with five bowlers rolling two frames apiece in a best-of-five series.
B’ville would find itself against Fulton in the Division I semifinals, with the winner guaranteed a berth in the March 14 state championships at Strike-N-Spare Lanes since Section III had an at-large berth to go with its champion.
Fulton got that berth, topping the Bees in the semifinals in three games. A low-scoring first game went 167-162 in the Red Dragons’ favor, and it went on to take the next two games 228-149 and 205-149. Then in the championship round Fulton upended RFA in five games, surrendering a 2-0 advantage but taking the final game 225-187.
Hass had the best individual four-game series of any Division I bowler. She opened with 225, continued with a 178 and, after that 268, closed with 211 for a 882 series trailing only the 896 of Christian Brothers Academy standout Eliana Occhino.
LaVeck started with 201 and peaked with a 232 second game. Her closing 162 meant a 774 series and a sixth-place individual finish as Hildreth was 10th with a consistent 745 total through games of 169, 186 and 194 to go with that third-game 196.
Diecuch had games of 175 and 173 along with her 210 in a 683 series which tied her for 19th place, while Leah Berkey had a four-game total of 545 with a high game of 154.
