The Livingston Lancers Bowling team kept up where they left off during last seasons' undefeated run with a victory over Caldwell on Thursday 2678-2220, improving the team to 1-0 on the young season.
"First match, I guess we were a little nervous, the lanes feel a little weird today, a little dry and bumpy in certain places," said sophomore Howard Hsu. Hsu was paired with teammates Mike Helderman and Scott Hochberg to play head to head against Caldwell's two bowlers of choice Andrew Lucila and Andrew Rosenberger.
Hsu was coming off of a perfect game 300 on Nov. 22 so expectations were high for the sophomore. "I was feeling good [when I bowled the 300], I was on my mark, and the last game it started coming, everything I threw just went down and as it went on I got more and more nervous," Hsu said.
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Hsu finished up Thursday's match with 174, and a 184 respectively, and was replaced in the third game by Andrew Stylman who bowled a 159 in his place. When asked why Hsu was replaced, Head Coach Griff Hughes asserted that his team has a rotation of nine bowlers and he feels "very confident" on any day any of his five can beat any other teams. "They're all really good players," added Hsu.
The Lancers bowling program was started in 1998 by Hughes who began the team based off of a five-person bowling club. After a number of years Hughes as well as a few others started the "North Jersey Bowling" League involving a number of Morris County teams, including Morris Knolls, Summit, and Seton Hall. Over time the state conferences were redefined as more and more teams joined in. Now the Conference boasts 21 schools of which Livingston is considered one of the top programs.
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While the Lancers are considered one of the teams to beat they know that they have a lot of competition in their conference. "Seton Hall is really good, they have a lot of good people, they're dedicated like us," said Hsu. "We could lose to any of those teams."
Only time will tell how far this team will go this season after winning all three titles last season (SEC, sectional and state), but the team expects to repeat. "We could lose to any of those teams, we all have to try hard, it's not like we can go there have fun, joke around and win a game, we all have to play serious and hard," Hsu said.
