On March 22, the Bulldog Bowling Club hosted the professional Philippine Bowling Federation for a friendly match at the Bulldog Bowl in the University Student Union. The match preceded a  Professional Bowlers Association tournament in Clovis, where the Philippine Bowling Federation was competing, offering them more practice time while the Bulldog Bowling Club experienced the pace of bowling with professional athletes. 

The Bulldog Bowling Club was established in 1969 and is currently made up of 19 students, three of whom are experiencing personally exceptional seasons. 

Senior Jerry Moua became a viral internet sensation in December, when the team competed at the Las Vegas Invitational. As Moua rolled strikes, his teammates began chanting his name, “Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!” And as his matches continued, spectators and players from opposing teams crowded around and joined in the chant. A video of the scene was shared by nationally and internationally recognized professional bowler Chris Barnes, getting more than 9 million views. 

“In my 20 years of coaching, I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Chris Preble, head coach of the Bulldog Bowling Club. Preble is also a Bulldog Bowling Club alumnus. After graduating from Fresno State, he bowled professionally for 10 years on the PBA regional level before joining the Bulldog Bowling Club coaching staff. 

Just one week before the friendly match last month, the Bulldog Bowling Club traveled to Dallas to compete in the Intercollegiate Singles and Team Qualifiers, where junior Spencer Norvell and freshman Vincent Luong ranked in the top 10 out of 177 players in the singles qualifier.

Preble said, in the team qualifier, “the Bulldogs were led by Spencer Norvell, who had the strongest tournament in his two years of collegiate bowling. Incidentally, Spencer recently made a bold decision to change the manner in which he shot at his spares. Over the course of four weeks, he dedicated a tremendous amount of reps to lock down the mechanism. Making this type of change this late in a season is always difficult; however, his gamble paid off very well, and he deserves a lot of credit for the work he put in.”

Norvell placed eighth overall in the singles qualifier. He was also recently recognized as a West Coast All-Star player. 

Luong was also named a West Coast All-Star, as well as Club Rookie of the Year. He placed first in the Intercollegiate Singles Sectional Qualifier, averaging 232.5 points throughout the competition. “This impressive feat was made even more incredible considering he broke a bone in his foot five weeks [earlier] and had minimal practice time coming into this event,” Preble said.

Luong will compete at the Intercollegiate Single National Championship in Las Vegas April 17 through 22. 

The Bulldog Bowling Club traveled to Indianapolis on April 1, where they competed in the Collegiate Club Championship. Teams compete at the Collegiate Club Championship for the honor of bringing home the Carlson Cup, a trophy dedicated to Glenn Carlson, who founded and coached the Bulldog Bowling Club. This year’s Bulldogs had a strong showing during qualifying and advanced through the first two rounds of matchplay. However, the Bulldogs suffered tough losses to Bowling Green University and Marion University, thereby ending their season.  

The team finished the season ranked 10th in their club and 47th nationally. 

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