Queens
Queens was held in El Paso this year, otherwise know as very far away from everything! I was excited to hear from one of my best friends, Christine, that she would be joining me on the lovely drive (sarcasm). She flew here from Michigan, spent the night, and then we were off on an awesome nine hour drive! I will save you the boring details of the drive, but I will show you some of the great scenery (sarcasm).
Christine and I arrived in El Paso, after a run in with the law! Yes, we were pulled over for, get this, being in the left lane too long! Neither Christine or I had ever heard of this law, but the officer was completely fascinated with the fact that we were bowling, even asking to see our balls!! (weird and sort of creepy!) We were tired and went straight to bed, well Christine did, I listened to her snore!!!! The next day I had team event for women's nationals and Christine came along to be my cheerleader!!! I love my team, and we always have a great time, does not hurt that we bowled great! After bowling, Christine and I had a chance to catch up with some of the other lady bowlers, I was excited to see Dee's pregnant belly :). After leaving the convention center, we went to dinner at a Mexican place with my team, and had a great time. The following day was doubles and singles, we all bowled great and Christine did a great job of rooting us on! Right after doubles and singles, we all had practice for the queens! By the end of practice we were exhausted and ready for bed! The next few days were going to be long ones!
Qualifying Round
Qualifying was hard on me, I struggled early on to get into a groove, but just could not pull myself together. However, I knew I could still make the cut if I just put forth a better effort. On the last day of qualifying I finally pulled myself together to get where I needed to be! After qualifing it was anyone's game!
Match Play
My first match did not go as I would have liked, I felt as though I bowled well, but just could not get anything going. Lucky for me, it was double elimination, so I was placed in the losers bracket but still had a chance to make the show.
My second match was a difficult one, I had to face Shannon O'keefe. I respect Shannon and think she is an amazing bowler, she is also a dear friend. I knew Shannon would be a tough opponent, so I put my noise to the ground and started out striking, my goal was to stay ahead of her the whole time and never give her the opportunity to get out in front of me, because that girl can strike! I defeated Shannon and moved on in the losers bracket.
My third match was against another friend Olivia, again it is always hard to bowl against people you have good relationships with. I was successful and moved on in the losers bracket.
On my fourth match I made one of the biggest mistakes a bowler can make, I tried to strike instead of just getting an easy spare! I will have flashbacks about this moment forever! It came down to the last game and all I needed was to spare and keep the ball on the lane. However, I chose to try to strike, well that did not work out as planned, I split, lost and was out of the tournament. I wish I could go back in time, but I can not, so I must learn from that experience and never let it happen again.
Christine.. Christine.. Christine...
I would like to take a minute to say how wonderful Christine bowled. She is still young and has not had as many tournaments under her belt as the rest of us, but looking at her performance in the Queens one would never know. She really bowled amazing and I was so proud of her.
U.S. Open
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