Most people at ASU don’t know that the University has a bowling club team that travels the country to compete.
Most people also don’t know that this team just won the Collegiate Club Championship.
On Sunday, the Sun Devils took on Purdue in a best-of-five contest. They won the first two, but in the third game, Purdue took the win. The Devils dug deep. After having just 79 points in the sixth frame, they managed to pull ahead and win the game.
Junior Nick Devlin said it still hasn’t hit him yet.
“It's still crazy,” Devlin said. "We got the last six strikes to shut them out, which is insane."
ASU won the national club bowling championship.
However, the Sun Devils were unable to qualify for the USBC Intercollegiate Team Championships. In order to earn a spot in this championship, the team competes in the Intercollegiate Team Sectionals and the top four in each section would compete in the 16-team tournament. ASU was close to making the dance, but missed out by just three pins.
After failing to make the USBC intercollegiate Team Championship, the team went into the Collegiate Club Championship with nothing but the title in their sight, going undefeated in the double elimination tournament and taking home the gold, beating top teams like Milwaukee, Morehead St. and Purdue.
Winning the championship doesn't come without determination. Junior Russ Oviatt said bowling has been his passion for more than a decade.
“I came out here for broadcast journalism,” he said. "So once I heard they have a bowling program, I thought, 'Oh, that's a perfect match for me.'"
This isn’t the first time the Sun Devils were in this spotlight; they've been competitive for the last few years. However, they haven't won the club national championship since 1981.
The team was loaded with young talent, but due to the fact that this is a club team, the players themselves needed to pay to play in some tournaments. For Oviatt, that's part of what makes the win more meaningful.
“It definitely makes it more personal that you actually have more control over what tournaments we bowl during the season,” Oviatt said.
The team gelled quickly, not only in the bowling centers, but also away from the game. It certainly showed in their production, winning six of the first seven tournaments. They were led by three All-Americans: Oviatt, Devlin and freshman Chase Nadeau.
The team recruited Nadeau, and Devlin eventually became the Rookie of the Year. The team wasn't just full of recruits that were expected to perform at such high levels, though; sophomore Matthew Zweig rose from obscurity to become one of the top bowlers on the team.
“At the beginning of the season I realized that I was the worst righty on the team and I'm pretty good but these guys are really good," Zweig said. "That was my goal, to be as good or better than them so the only way to do that is to work harder."
Head coach Jordan Nassberg called Zweig the most valuable player on the team.
"He's just all guts and all heart on the team," Nassberg said.
With all the talent coming back next season, the team believes that a repeat is not only possible, it's an expectation for the next season.
“We're getting better next year,” head coach Jordan Nassberg said. "We have probably one of the top groups in the nation coming in and we have three All-Americans on the team returning ... We want to be the top-ranked team in the nation next year."
Reach the reporter at osoussi@asu.edu or follow @omarksoussi on Twitter.
Like State Press Sports on Facebook and follow @statepresssport on Twitter.
