The Tulane women’s bowling team is quickly approaching the end of its regular season. The No. 16 Green Wave started off the spring semester with perhaps its best performance of the season. 

At the Blue and White Vegas Classic, Tulane bowling finished with a record of 8-5, which secured a fifth-place finish. Thirteen teams competed and Tulane placed higher than three other schools ranked above the Green Wave: No. 13 Mount Saint Mary’s, No. 14 Delaware State and No. 15 Maryville.

This performance should lead to Tulane rising in the new release of the national rankings. 

A top five finish and two all-tournament performances! 2020 is off to a big start! https://t.co/c3RvocIcus#RollWave pic.twitter.com/saYeb0ENYi

— Tulane Bowling (@GreenWaveBowl) January 13, 2020

“Overall, I am pleased with the start to the spring semester,” coach Hayley Veitch said. “The team looked really sharp the last couple of days and we did really well keeping up with the higher scoring pace.”

Over the next six weeks, the team will take part in the final three regular season competitions. Following that, Tulane will compete in the United States Bowling Congress Intercollegiate Sectionals from March 13-15, one week before the Southland Conference Championship. Since its creation in the 2014-15 season, the Southland Bowling League has produced three national champions.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7K9WtSnyYn/

The results from the Wildcat Invitational from Feb. 7-9, Mid-Winter Invitational from Feb. 14-16 and the Columbia 300 Music City Classic from March 6-8 will be important for the team to build momentum going into postseason play. 

The conference championship will be key for the Tulane women if they want to compete at the national level this season. Conference opponents include No. 2 Sam Houston State, No. 4 Arkansas State, No. 5 Vanderbilt, No. 8 Stephen F. Austin, No. 9 Youngstown and No. 11 Louisiana Tech. 

Clearly, Tulane bowling faces a monumental challenge this semester. Playing in a conference with this many highly competitive teams will challenge the athletes, who will need to rise to the occasion.

If the team can build on its most recent results and excel in the conference tournament, Tulane may be able to make a run this postseason. The Green Wave will be back in action Feb. 7 at the Wildcat Invitational in Orlando.