COLUMBUS — Are you ready?”
It’s the loud question Emma Yoder asked each of her teammates before every match during Saturday’s OHSAA Division II Girls Tournament championship round.
Indeed, after making their journey clear at the start of the season, the Titans were.
Triway High School has its first state title in any sport after the Titans swept No. 1 seed Napoleon 3-0 in the best-of-five finals at Wayne Webb’s Columbus Bowl.
“Unbelievable. I could say we planned for this all year. But my emotions take over when I see how excited these girls are,” Triway girls coach Corby Anderson said. “I told them in between games that we were one step closer and we have to keep going.
“We worked toward this all season.”
The Titans aren’t only bringing home a team trophy. Yoder captured the individual state title with a 718 series — a Division II state tourney record, topping the former mark by six pins.
Another amazing stat: the Titans don’t have a senior on their roster of four juniors, two sophomores and a freshman.
Triway, which was the No. 2 seed following qualifying with a 3,233 total pinfall (11 pins behind Napoleon), swept past St. Paris Graham (3-0) and took just four games to stop No. 6 seed Liberty Center (3-1) to reach the title match.
During critical points in both matches, Yoder pulled out wins for the Titans with key strikes in the10th frame of Baker System games.
“She was just unbelievable. Vince (Yoder) and I were talking about how many tough shots she threw in matches,” Anderson said. “A lot of kids are not going to know what they need to do it.
“But she knows, and that makes it even more unreal. She gets up and throws a double when she needs to throw a double. I can’t even explain that.”
In the opening game of the title match, the Titans left one split and one missed spare en route to a 176-146 win.
But in Game 2, both teams struggled as the Titans had open frames during four of their first five; the Lady Wildcats did the same. But Triway was able to recover for three spares in a row at one point and Yoder went strike-spare in the 10th frame for a 137-124 win.
“Spare shooting is an issue when the lanes get a little tough. It’s something we practice all year,” Anderson said. “A lot of times, the girls get frustrated when we take the first 30 minutes of practice shooting them.
“But I remind them that it’s going to come to a point where we are going to have to make them, and it did today.”
It was Napoleon’s poor spare shooting that finally did it in in Game 3. While the Titans had just one open frame en route to a 204-149 win, the Wildcats had five opens, including four missed spares.
“It’s something we stress all the time. When you get into a situation like this, we try to have them focus on positive thoughts and focus on what they relied on all of their years of bowling … making good shots and trusting their targets,” said Napoleon head coach Randy Schwaiger, whose team fell in the quarterfinals a year ago to Bellefontaine Benjamin Logan 3-1 after being the No. 2 seed.
“We have to hand it to Triway. They bowled extremely well during the entire set against us. They forced us to make good shots which just added to the pressure of making spares.”
Napoleon reached the finals the tough way, going five games to top No. 8 seed Carrollton 3-2 and five more to stop St. Marys Memorial 3-2.
“We felt we had the ability to get to the final two and make enough good shots,” Schwaiger said. “We just ran out of steam. Those five-game matches were taxing for sure.”
Sophomore Addy Meshew also made All-Ohio, finishing in 11th place due to a high-game tie-breaker with 570. She finished fourth overall a year ago.
Also playing key roles for the Titans were juniors Lindsay Miller (507), junior Danielle Densmore (496) and freshman Kennedy Finley (321 for two games, but in lineup during championship round). Junior Sydney Wile also had a 167 in Game 3.
But Yoder’s performance topped the field.
LEADING THE FIELD
“I’m just speechless … this is the best feeling ever,” an emotional Yoder said. “I wanted to make the top 15 this year and, obviously, I did that.
“I wanted to be strong mentally and obviously physically, and I was able to do that.”
Her father, head boys coach Vince Yoder, hasn’t seen his daughter that solid under pressure.
“She’s had some big performances in JTBAs and individual stuff, but to put a team on your back like that and strike in some of those 10th frames, it was unbelievable,” Vince Yoder said. “It gave me chills. She was just clutch.”
Emma Yoder said pressure does’t really faze her.
“I get nervous, but not to the point where I feel I can’t do anything. So I just go up there like I should,” the sophomore left-hander said. “Most of the time, I knew what I needed to do.
“I do that in my head, but I always ask Corby and my dad to make sure I’m OK, too.”
For Anderson and the Titans this was the end of a journey that started early.
“We planned on this all season … our goal was the state tournament,” Anderson said. “We won some of those little tournaments along the way, but that’s just a stair step, gaining knowledge, experience and positivity,”
But what it means to the 10-year-old Triway program is a lot more.
“We started this with my boys and didn’t even have girls until two years later,” Vince Yoder said. “To be the first title in bowling history and school history, that means a lot. That was my goal and everyone kind of made fun of us a little bit when we started. They didn’t think we were too serious.
“But we have a bunch of support now. Obviously, it’s been a great and fun ride.”
Were the Titans ready? A resounding “YES.”
Great article… thanks!