The Goshen College men’s and women’s bowling teams are starting their second season of competition, hoping to improve upon their performances last year — and promote breast cancer awareness.

The changes for this season will allow both teams to be more connected to their home lanes at Maple City Bowl, 10 minutes away from campus.

Last year, team members used a storage room for their clothing and gear. This year, they have official lockers.

“They only had this little bitty room, and we shared it with the bowling alley for storage,” said Scott Curtis, the bowling head coach.

Now, with more space, they can fit far more people, allowing the team to expand from 13 men and 11 women to the maximum allowed by the U.S. Bowling Congress regulations. “There’s 46 lockers in here, so I can go 23 and 23 max, based on USBC rules,” Curtis said.

Some standout new recruits include Kaidance Gates, one of the best high school bowlers in the Flint Metro Bowling Conference, and Matt Dominiano, recruited from the national Junior Gold Championships in Green Bay.

Curtis said he isn’t just looking for the best bowlers the state has to offer. “Yes, I want to find good bowlers,” he said, “but I want to find good bowlers that take their education seriously.”

The women’s team is hoping to repeat in advancing to the sectional finals. Bekah Muzyk, a Sophomore music education major, who won the 2025 Leafys award for Performance of the Year, said, “Last year, for a first year program, it went phenomenally.”

Curtis was equally optimistic about last year, and said it will carry over to this year. “Without a doubt, yeah, this year’s going to be better,” he said. “The goal is to do better in the conference, hopefully by two spots each, and hopefully make the sectionals by the end of the year.”

Last year, the women placed fifth in the league, and the men placed seventh.

Hayden Grindle, a sophomore music education major, said, “Last year, everything was so vastly different to what we were used to. We were all freshmen, so not having any people doing it to help lead us made it difficult.”

Muzyk and her fellow sophomore bowlers will pass on their knowledge of collegiate bowling and how it works. “The second-years are definitely going to take on a leadership role to the first-years,” she said.

Now, with veterans to lean on, the team can focus on something larger than just bowling. This year, the teams decided to dedicate their season to breast cancer awareness.

Breast cancer is the second-most-common type of cancer among women, and the leading cancer in fatality, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency reports that this year, about one in

every 750 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and about one in every 1,800 women will die.

“A lot of teams have breast cancer awareness things like this throughout the country,” Curtis said. He also noted that the alternate jersey could make the players proud of who they are bowling for as a school.

Muzyk said it may help them perform better. “It gives us more motivation to do better, and represent these important topics,” she said.

Bailey Friars, a sophomore graphic design major, said, “It’s a great thing to advocate for, so I’m really happy that we’re doing something.”

The opening fundraiser, which supported breast cancer awareness as well as the new locker room, happened last Saturday. The men’s team placed third out of five, with sophomore Brendan Riley getting top men’s performer in the event.

The women’s team placed second out of three, with sophomore Lily Kelley finishing second individually.

The teams will have two matches in October: the Midwest Collegiate Championship on Oct. 4 and 5, and the Columbia 300 Western Shootout on Oct. 11 and 12.