Striking athletes aren’t spared in playoff losses

Science girls lose in second round 

The Bronx Science girls bowling team lost only one match this season, but coach William O’Hara called it “probably the best match we’ve played all year.”

The 14th-seeded Wolverines lost two games to one to No. 3 Curtis at Rab’s Country Lanes on Staten Island on Monday. PSAL matches are broken down into a Game A and a Game B, which are played concurrently. Each game includes four players per team. If the teams split those games, which Bronx Science and Curtis did, a Game C is played using any grouping of four players from the first two games. Curtis won Game C, 647 pins to 591.

O’Hara, a physical education teacher at Bronx Science who is the team’s fourth different coach in four years, was proud of his squad’s performance.

“They thought they were going to get blown out, but I had more belief in them and said they could be competitive,” he said. “They’ve made great improvements from start to finish this season.”

Bronx Science lost the A game, 596-452, but took the B game, 512-500, behind Qiao Yuan Lin’s 149 and Sophia Zhu’s 148. Sosara Ma had a 120 in Game A and then led the Wolverines in Game C with a 178.

“I’m really sad that it’s over,” said Charlene Chan, who had a 111 in the A game. “I still want to keep bowling and raising my score, and I’m going to come back for homecoming to get together with my teammates.”

Chan led the team in its playoff win over Richmond Hill last Thursday with a 144. “The season went real smoothly,” she said. “I don’t think we had too much trouble and we all developed our skills.”

O’Hara said one of the best things about this year’s team was its ability to avoid putting too much pressure on players and to have fun.

“The girls have a real lackadaisical spirit. They make fun of each other. They don’t get too high or too down,” he said. “You would never know it’s a serious varsity sport. I had a blast coaching this year. We had a lot of laughs, and that’s the point of high school sports.”