N.C. A&T’s women’s bowling team won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Championship earlier this week after defeating Monmouth University 4-2 in a best-of-7 series.
This is the Aggie’s sixth conference title overall and their second title in four years under coach Terrell-Kearney.
Senior Cameron Strombeck serves as the team captain and she believes this year’s team was the most talented she’s seen in her four years here at A&T.
“Every time we stepped into the building teams knew who we were.”Strombeck said, “That was a great feeling because it was not like that my freshman year and we worked hard to earn that respect.”
The nationally-ranked Aggies, came into the tournament as the No.1 seed, which featured three other ranked schools, Monmouth being one of them who’s ranked 19th nationally and defeated the Aggies back in February.
“When we first played them we did not have one of our best games.” Strombeck said. “We knew when we saw them again we had to play better and give it our all.”
Monmouth went up early in the series after taking the first two games. However, the Aggies willed their way back and won three straight games to take a 3-2 lead.
In Game 6 Strombeck bowled a deciding strike on fame 9 to lead the Aggies to a 165-159 win.
The win gave the Aggies an automatic bid into the 2021 NCAA Bowling championships which is a 16 team double-elimination tournament that takes place on April 7th-10th in Kansas City, Missouri.
This is the third time N.C. A&T has qualified for the tournament and the second for Strombeck who went her freshman year with the team.
“We’re all looking forward to the NCAA tournament because it’s one of the coolest experiences I ever had,” Strombeck said.
Over the years Strombeck has been described as “the Aggieshidden gem.” She was awarded the MEAC bowler of the Year after leading the Aggies with 6,397 total pins in 2021 over 30 games for an average of 213.2.
She is now the second Strombeck to bring home the award. Her sister Emily Strombeck won it back-to-back in 2014 and 2015 while attending N.C. A&T.
“I was always stuck under my sister’s shadow and her success when I first got here,” Strombeck said. “Coach Kearney instilled the confidence that I needed in myself and it translated to my accomplishments.
In addition to that, Strombeck joins freshman Melanie Katen and junior Ericka Quesada as Aggies who made first-team all-conference.
With this being her last collegiate season Strombeck plans on attending graduate school and majoring in Forensic Science. Eventually, she and her sister aspire to try their shot at the Professional Women’s Bowling Association (PWBA) tour.
The Aggies are still waiting to hear who they match up against in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
They look to bring home the program’s first national championship.
