4/8/10 Out of hibernation

Are spring and summer over already? Something woke up The Messenger from his offseason slumber -- a subtle sense that bowling season wasn't yet over. Well, guess what? It's not.

Sure, the high school stuff has all been tied up in a neat little package, sheets of notes and scores filed away in the Official Archives of the NJBB. But hark; the culmination of college bowling season has arrived, and this year, it's right here in our home state!
TM distinctly remembers watching the NCAA women's bowling finals on ESPN8, "The Ocho" at his sister's house over Easter weekend of 2009. (Ok, it was ESPNU, the same station that will air this year's title match at 8:30 p.m.) His memory is not as clear about when exactly he heard that the NCAAs were coming to Carolier Lanes for 2010... but the point is, they're here now, and next year, they'll be in Detroit. Clearly, it is carpe diem time.

The NJBB won't be able to make it down to North Brunswick for the first two rounds of the double-elimination tournament, happening today (TM has some sort of appointment with the tax man, apparently the IRS wants those turned in by next Thursday). But as soon as H&R Block has chewed me up and spit me out, I'm off to Carolier for this evening's semifinal round. Expect tweets.

Tomorrow, TM must attend to the little matter of his springtime beat (softball) earlier in the day, so if a semifinal rematch is necessary (ah, the beauty of double-elimination), it will be rolled on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and you'll have to find out the results on your own. Actually, you can do that for all of the tournament matches here:
http://www.ncaa.com/sports/w-bowl/spec-rel/040910aaa.html

And then, when the title match rolls around tomorrow night, The Messenger will be parked lane-side tweeting away once more. Depending on how much he can resist the tempting pull of Sunday afternoon baseball, he should be able to blog some tournament highlights in this space by the end of the weekend.

One bummer: there are two New Jersey teams that qualified among the top eight, the host New Jersey City University and Fairleigh Dickinson University. And wouldn't you know it, those two are meeting in the 4-5 match-up in the very first round of the tournament, so there goes TM's dream finals. However, do note that IHA grad Lauren Rhein is bowling for No. 3 seed Vanderbilt, which is on the opposite side of the bracket from No. 1 and defending champ Nebraska. Hopefully, we'll get some Garden State representation in the championship round. Failing that... well, the NJCU/FDU match is going on right now, so TM is off to follow the above link and check it out online.

See you on the other side...