PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland — After seeing her junior season cut short due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and missing 2020-21 because of Hawk Athletics opting out of competition for the same reason, graduate student Paulina Torres (Ponce, Puerto Rico) made the decision to return to the Hawks this year.

As the team's most senior player, whose comfort level is higher than at any time in the past, she's embraced a role as a leader on this Eastern Shore squad. So when the team opens the season on Friday (Oct. 22) at the Colonial Lanes Classic in Harahan, Louisiana, perhaps nobody will be more pleased to have a measure of where the team stands to begin the year.

"I think we are all excited to be in this together," Torres said. "We have a new coach (Roger Petrin) and it's a new adventure. We are pretty close as a team and we are getting along together. We have good things going and I think we are going to accomplish great things.

"In previous years, we had a lot of leadership and I had watched them. I thought it was my time to be a leader, step up and be more vocal. I think we have progressed a lot in the last few months that we have been here."

Torres has seen more international success as a member of Team Puerto Rico than she has with the Hawks in her career and is looking for another chance at an elusive NCAA title.

Also returning this season is senior Brooke Roberts (Port Orange, Florida) who was named Preseason All-MEAC on the heels of a Junior Gold U-20 singles Championship over the summer. The win came with a spot on Junior Team USA and high expectations for this season.

"Brooke wasn't on campus last year, she did distance learning from home and she was able to practice and go to a lot of tournaments," Torres said. "I think she came back to campus as the best of us."

Despite the year spent practicing on their own, and the separation from both actual and social distance, the team worked hard to stay in contact even if it was virtually. That effort paid off when everyone returned to campus in August.

"We definitely have progressed just from getting to know each other," Roberts said. "We stayed in contact while I was gone, so in a way we knew each other, but it wasn't like a team. It was more like we have known each other for a long time. We made an effort, so that when we got on campus it was very smooth. Bonding wise we have gotten stronger since because we are all together right now and I feel like athletic wise we are in a pretty good spot going into our first tournament after a year and a half."
While they are beginning to gel as a team, they know it doesn't come easy. And this weekend's competition will be a litmus test for where they are.

"We are still in the process of that," junior Alejandra Amezcua (Baja California, Mexico) said. "As a group, we just don't know yet what we are confronting at tournaments. But we talk to each other, we try to support each other and we have a talented team, so I am looking forward to the start."

Amezcua, who was just a freshman along with Roberts when the team last competed, has also made a conscious effort to provide leadership on this year's team.

"I'm just trying to do my best and trying to help the new girls to blend with the team and make a good chemistry," Amezcua said. "So if I can help them with something I try and do that. I was in their shoes before and I want to make this easier for them because it's their first experience in collegiate bowling."

While sophomores Gabriella Ochoa Hubbard (Nogales, Sonora, Mexico) and Brooke Driver (Woodbridge, Virginia) have been on campus for more than a year, it's sometimes difficult to remember that they have never experienced competition at this high level yet.

"We are trying to make sure that everyone has the ability to come in and compete," Roberts, the 2019-20 MEAC Rookie of the Year said. "I know a couple of them have voiced that they are nervous, which is understandable. I was nervous myself the first time coming in and it turned out to be good. We are just trying to keep their nerves down to a point where it doesn't distract them from throwing good shots. I think we'll be able to throw some  good shots out there."

The final member of the squad is lefty junior Vanderbilt transfer Elizabeth Ross (Schenectady, New York). Like the two sophomores, Ross has been on the squad for just one non-competition year, but having spent two years with the Commodores she has been a part of collegiate competition before.

"She has definitely brought the left side to us, which we haven't had in a few years," Roberts said. "She has brought a good energy and has changed the team dynamic in a good way by providing that. We need that. Everyone can't do that. I for one am not that that kind of person, but I need that to stay up."

What success looks like in the first week is a subjective question in any first event, but even more-so this year. With a six member team for now, the Shore will be looking for contributions from everyone this weekend in order to find it — whatever it may look like.

"We have been waiting so long for this," Amezcua said. "Two years ago, we were just a couple tournaments away from nationals and then we went back home. It was a rough year last year, but we are so excited to come back and give our best and go for a championship."

After finishing the abbreviated 2019-20 season ranked No. 6 in the National Tenpin Coaches Association poll, the Hawks open this season at No. 20 after the year off.

"We look at it like there is more room to move up," Roberts said. "We are looking to make some moves and surprise some people. We didn't bowl last year and in a way we are underdogs because nobody really knows anything about where we are as a team. We are excited."