Hodag bowling teams suffer close defeats

Both of the Hodag club bowling teams suffered close losses on Sunday during Rounds 3 and 4 of Wisconsin High School Bowling Club District 9 competition in Weston.

The Rhinelander/Tomahawk boys fell 5 1/2-3 1/2 to Stevens Point before dropping a tight 5-4 decision to D.C. Everest at Dale’s Weston Lanes. The Rhinelander/Elcho girls fell in a pair of decisive ninth games in 5-4 losses to the Manawa co-op and Amherst/Stevens Point.

It was especially close for the Hodag girls against Manawa. After jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the match, the Hodags lost the next four games, including three games by 5 pins or fewer. Rhinelander took the eighth game 146-131 to set up a deciding Game 9. 

Working off an Addison Habeck spare and an Alyssa Habeck strike going into the 10th frame, anchor bowler Johanna Dellenbach was unable to covert a three-pin spare on her second ball of the frame as the Hodags fell 113-109.

“If you look at the scores, all it would have taken was an extra spare pick-up here and there from anyone on the team,” Hodag girls’ coach Cory Dellenbach said. “That's how close we were to winning this match. To lose like this is heartbreaking and you could tell the girls were upset.”

Down 4-2 in the match against Amherst/SPASH, Rhinelander stayed alive with a 146-132 win in Game 7 before shooting its best score of the day in a 204-184 win in Game 8 to force another deciding Game 9. 

Rhinelander was plagued by six open frames in the last game, including three on splits, as they fell 152-109.

“Again, a few marks here and there were the difference in this game,” coach Dellenbach said. “Going from a season-high 204 to a 109 the next game is not a good feeling at all. The girls need to get more consistent and learn from this. Just because they won a game doesn’t mean the next one is a given.”

The Hodag girls filled exactly 50% of their frames in both matches, averaging 134.8 pins per game against Manawa and 138.9 against Amherst/SPASH.

“While the girls are improving, we still definitely need to work on spare shooting,” coach Dellenbach said. “It's a part of the game that has to improve if we want to get over this hump and get our first match win as a group.”

Johanna Dellenbach led the team, filling 23 of her 36 frames on the day with 13 strikes. Aubrey Doppke went 22 of 36 with six strikes, Alyssa Habeck was 21 of 36 with seven strikes, Addison Habeck went 14 of 31 with five strikes, Emily Koniar was 7 of 16 with five strikes and Katrina Roof was 3 of 18 with two strikes. 

“Alyssa did a nice job picking up her spares today. That 7 pin just kept staying up for her and she kept knocking it down,” coach Dellenbach said, noting that Habeck went 7 of 8 on single-pin spare conversions in the match against Manawa.

It was a similar story for the Hodags boys as they won Game 8 202-175 to force a decisive ninth game against D.C. Everest. While the Hodags had only one open in the final game, and shot their fourth 200-plus game of the match, they came up short in a 230-204 decider. 

“We’re bowling against Everest, which I would say is probably the strongest team of our division and it was going back and forth and we just lost our striking,” coach Mike Bourcier said. 

The Hodags could look back on two games earlier in the match that proved costly. Two opens haunted them in a 179-174 loss in the opening game. The team had five opens in Game 4, falling 147-130. There wasn’t much Rhinelander could do about the other three losses, as the Evergreens shot 235, 266 and 230 in those games. 

“It was a tough loss. This is the second match we’ve bowled that came down to the ninth game. We didn’t get blown out. We were in it, we just couldn’t get over the hump,” Bourcier said. 

The Hodags started slow in the first match against Stevens Point, dropping the first two games 233-125 and 208-139. Rhinelander rebounded with a 201-192 win in Game 3 and had a chance to win Game 4 when anchor bowler Noah Pearson left a split on his second ball of the 10th. After going for the spare conversion and missing both pins, SPASH struck out in the 10th to force a 193-all tie. 

“That almost took a little bit of the wind out of the kids,” Bourcier noted.

Two opens late in Game 5 cost the Hodags in a 169-156 loss and SPASH locked up a halve of the match with a 196-178 win in Game 6. Pearson struck out in the 10th as the Hodags stayed alive with a 167-166 win in Game 7 but faded with a 202-136 loss in Game 8 that clinched the dual for the Panthers. 

“I have a feeling all the kids were trying too hard and were a little tense,” Bourcier said. They just didn’t relax and roll the ball. We’ve got them at practice to do that to try to make them see what happens when they just roll the ball and don’t try to force it.

“They went out, relaxed and shoot 232 that last game. They didn’t force it. They just let the ball roll and everything.”

Blake Klingen led the Hodags, filling 30 of his 36 frames with 15 strikes on the day. Pearson was 29 of 36 with 19 strikes, Dominic Hakala was 27 of 26 with 11 strikes, Keagyn Schoone was 26 of 26 with 18 strikes and Jackson Fuss was 16 of 36 with eight strikes. 

“Blake did really well. He only had six opens on the day. That’s a great improvement from the first match,” Bourcier noted. “Noah, he had seven with five the first set but he came back solid the second set with only two. Dom had nine on the day. A lot of his were splits that he missed. He didn’t miss too many makable spares. I look at that also. Keagyn, the first match he struggled but he came solid the second match. Kevin got him settled down a little bit on a few things and it worked really well for him.”

In middle school action, the Hodags fell 8-1 to D.C Everest No. 1 on Sunday. Rhinelander’s lone win came in Game 4 when it has seven strikes and edged the Evergreens 180-177.

“I was very happy to see the development that we had from our middle schoolers,” coach Dellenbach said. “With three of them being practically brand new to the sport our first meet was a little rough. Today we still lost, but we got our first game win and it was a nice one.”

Natalie Dellenbach was 15 of 18 with six strikes on the day while Eli Miller went 12 of 18 with five strikes. Charlotte Preuss had six fills, Logan Campbell had three fills and Silas Johnson had two fills.

“Eli and Natalie had great days today,” coach Dellenbach said. “These two are the leaders on the team and aren't afraid to lend their teammates tips when they can.”  

The Hodag bowling teams return to Weston this Sunday. The Hodag boys will face Wisconsin Rapids and Wausau/Mosinee, the Hodag girls will take on D.C. Everest/Wittenberg followed by Merrill/Tomahawk and the middle schoolers will face D.C. Everest No. 2.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].