Bellmore-Merrick Girls Bowling Roll Over Island Trees

The Bellmore-Merrick girls bowling team completed a clean 11-0 sweep of Island Trees on Monday afternoon to improve their record to 7-3 on the season. The girls also defeated Wantagh by a score of 8-3 last Thursday afternoon.

In the sweep, Bellmore-Merrick also won the total wood count by nearly 400 pins, 1,931-1,567.

“The girls all played really well,” head coach Keri Cinelli said. “They had a little bit of a rough start bowling below their average, but bowled really well in the final game. We want to do well against Plainedge next to give us a little bit of a buffer zone in the position round next week.”

In the opening game, Mepham senior Laura Rooney notched the high score with a 167, followed closely behind by Calhoun freshman Kayla Cappuzzo with a 161 and Calhoun senior Nicole Celauro with a 159. Another Calhoun senior, Kate Brown, wrapped up the scoring with a 111. Despite the early struggles, Bellmore-Merrick pulled out the win, 598-511.

Rooney led the team again in the second game, bowling a 173. Celauro also improved upon her first score with a solid 163, followed by Brown with a 150. Mepham senior Victoria Sorrentino was substituted in for Cappuzzo and bowled a 132. Bellmore-Merrick improved their second game score by 20 pins to win, 618-494.

Brown fixed her mistakes from the first two games to bowl a game-high 217 in the third game. Sorrentino had a breakout game as well with a strong score of 180, followed by Cappuzzo with a 163. Celauro concluded the scoring with a 155. Bellmore-Merrick completed the sweep and won the third game, 715-562.

“We got our confidence up knowing what we have to do here,” Rooney said. “We have to work hard to be where we need to be. We have to back each other up when someone is having a bad day.”

Bellmore-Merrick, who currently stands in third place in the county behind Sewanhaka and Levittown-Division, knows of the tough task ahead once the county tournament rolls around next month.

“Any given day, you never know what will happen. We just want to bring our best game and see where it goes,” Cinelli said. “If they all bowl to their ability for all of those matches, then we have a good shot.”

Bellmore-Merrick will wrap up their regular season against Plainedge, followed by the positional round on Thursday, Jan. 20, at the Levittown South Lanes. The team county tournament will take place on Saturday, Feb. 5, at 9 a.m. in Garden City.