Antioch claims third straight NSC title

Antioch’s girls bowling team keeps rolling along.

The Sequoits captured their third straight North Suburban Conference championship at eSkape Lanes in Buffalo Grove on Friday.

Antioch was the only team to surpass the 5,000 mark with 5,041. Lake Division champion Zion-Benton was second with 4,670, Libertyville placed third with 4,497 and Warren took fourth with 4,420.

“I don’t know if it gets a lot more tougher with people shooting at us,” said Antioch coach Jeff Childress, whose team won the Prairie Division. “The expectations are so high from our team. You expect them to deliver each time. We fight as hard as everybody else and just give it our best.”

Antioch was consistent, rolling 2,531 for the first three games and 2,610 over the last three.

The Sequoits also had the highest game of the day with a 906 in Game 4.

“I think we bowled what we were expected, but our scores were down,” Childress said. “It was a tough shot out there. For what we shot on, it was very good.”

Symantha Rolph led Antioch with a runner-up individual score of 1,066 and a high game 225, also rolled in Game 4. Katy Bain (1,056) and Kelsey Schreiber (1,043) finished third and fourth, respectively, for Antioch. Alyson Mathias was 12th (932), while Stevie Lindberg (665, 4 games) and Samantha Dvorak (279, 2 games) also contributed.

“I thought the pattern was a lot different and tougher than last year,” Rolph said. “It was frustrating. You had to keep your head in the game.

“You have to think positive — that you can do this. Once you think negative, you can’t do this. You will get a low game.”

Casey Brown of Warren got rolling quickly, shooting an amazing 620 for the first three games. Included was a high game of 243 in Game 3 in which she started with 8 strikes.

Brown ended up taking top honors with an 1,100 series over the 6 games.

“I really wasn’t thinking about the shot. I wanted to hit my mark out there,” Brown said. “I was trying to be relaxed and wanted to hit my shot and stay with it, knowing that I could do it. It was hard with the lanes breaking down. I guess it was my day.”

Laura Polakowski of Libertyville finished fifth (1,033), followed by Zion-Benton’s Melissa Stone (998), Libertyville’s Ashley Babetch (990), Zion-Benton’s Courtney Haligren (983), Taylor Rigwood of Vernon Hills (974) and Lake Zurich’s Larissa Howard (961).