A-K Valley grads help form foundation as Mercyhurst women’s bowling moves into Division I
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Ask a college freshmen about the biggest differences between their current level and high school, and the answers often are similar. Athletes are more accomplished. Game is faster. There’s more depth on rosters.
But when Deer Lakes grad Tia Germanich donned a Mercyhurst bowling jersey and walked into her first college match in October, she noticed something else.
She didn’t get noticed.
“Whenever I was in high school, we had the top dogs,” she said. “Everybody kind of knew who you were. When you walked in, you had people coming up and saying hi to you, asking how you were doing.
“I was known, and now I’m just a little freshman again. … If they saw Deer Lakes’ name on the tournament roster, they knew I was coming. Now there’s just some teams that don’t know me yet. But I’ll make that happen.”
The same could be said for the Lakers women’s bowling team as a whole. Like the rest of Mercyhurst’s sports, the women’s bowling team is competing in Division I for the first time.
In its first five years of existence under coach Mike Machuga, the Lakers became a power in the East Coast Conference, winning the past two conference titles. Now, the Lakers are starting all over again.
Machuga said the Lakers will be competing in many of the same tournaments as in years past. The big difference will be competition in the Northeast Conference, which, for women’s bowling, comprises Duquesne, Fairleigh Dickinson, Monmouth, Niagara, Wagner and LIU, along with the Lakers.
“So the field gets a lot stronger,” Machuga said. “We went from basically becoming a powerhouse in the ECC to simply just kind of a ‘contender’ in the NEC.”
To build Mercyhurst into a powerhouse in the new conference, Machuga is relying on several young bowlers, including a five-woman freshman class he called “the most talented class that we have recruited here at Mercyhurst.”
Aside from Germanich, that freshman class includes two other bowlers from the A-K Valley: Riverview’s Gwyneth Fichte and Freeport’s Mackensie Livingston. A fourth bowler from the A-K Valley, Freeport grad Emma Windows, is a sophomore.
Germanich and Livingston made their presence felt right away. At the season-opening Mercyhurst Invitational, Germanich was the highest-finishing Laker (fifth) with a 202 average. In the next tournament, at Youngstown State, it was Livingston who led the way for Mercyhurst with a 185.4 average.
Machuga said he has known the Livingston family for years, and he had hoped for a long time that Mackensie would choose to bowl at Mercyhurst. He hasn’t been disappointed.
“She’s just a joy to be around,” said Machuga, who spent more than a decade on the PBA Tour, winning two titles. “Incredibly talented. She has an incredible, fluid swing, and her feet dance along with that swing in a great rhythm. … She doesn’t let a lot bother her. She just kind of goes with the flow and enjoys the whole ride.”
Said Livingston: “I think it’s going pretty well. Rough start. Big change. But now I am getting in the swing of things, so I think it will go a little better. The bowling is just more difficult. There’s more competition. It took a bit of getting used to.”
Having Germanich on the team was less of a sure thing. A strong softball player, she had overtures from some Division III programs to continue in that sport.
In the end, she decided bowling would make a better path for her future.
In the first of two NEC meets before the conference championship, which will be March 21, Mercyhurst tied with preseason favorite Duquesne for first place, with Germanich rolling a team-high 222 in an opening win over Niagara. She finished the event with a 184 average, second on the team. (Livingston spearheaded the second match, rolling a 231 in a win over Wagner.)
“Tia is arguably the most talented athlete I’ve had here at Mercyhurst,” Machuga said. “She’s able to pretty much do anything that you tell her to do. You can tell her to do something that she’s never done before, and she just walks up and does it instantaneously.”
Germanich said giving up softball was a difficult decision, but Machuga’s guidance helped ease her anxiety.
She credits him for bringing out the best in the players as bowlers and as people. She said he displays a knack for how to coach women.
“He just gets it,” she said. “Girls have their own emotions and everything, and he’s understanding of that. I went through some major mental health struggles this past semester, and after talking to him, he told me if I needed to take the weekend off of the tournament that I was more than welcome because, obviously, my mental health came first.
“He’s very understanding when it comes to situations like that, and I feel like some male coaches just don’t get it. But he does.”
The freshmen also look to the handful of older bowlers, particularly Delaney Whitehead, one of only two seniors. With three years of college savvy under her belt — not to mention being one of the Lakers’ best bowlers — Whitehead often is the go-to for the younger players.
“Delaney Whitehead is super helpful with the setup of all the tournaments,” Livingston said, noting Whitehead explained to the freshmen how the competitions would unfold. “She’s very calming. She’s very mature and just keeps the whole team together.”
The second NEC meet will be held in February, then there will be two more tournaments before Mercyhurst can test its mettle in the conference championship for the first time.
Machuga said he likes the direction the team is heading — the Lakers were No. 24 in the most recent National Tenpin Coaches Association poll — and is optimistic about the future. That doesn’t mean the Lakers are not trying to win now.
Like Germanich, they want people to know who they are.
“I think we have the potential to keep moving on,” Livingston said. “We’re pretty good. We have a lot of freshmen who have a lot of potential. The team goal, I would say, is probably to build ourselves up a little better for next year but also keep moving on this year, which, I believe, we have a chance.”