Greensburg Salem wins WPIBL girls team championship

By: Tribune-Review
Thursday, February 13, 2020 | 9:05 PM

Over the last dozen years, Westmoreland County schools have dominated the girls team competition at the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Bowling League championships.

Those success stories, however, have been written mostly by two teams. Hempfield has won seven of the last 12 girls team titles, and Norwin captured back-to-back crowns in 2014-15.

On Thursday, a new champion joined the list.

Building on an undefeated regular season, the Greensburg Salem girls took top WPIBL honors at Princess Lanes in Whitehall, beating Shaler in the championship match.

Greensburg Salem, the top seed coming out of the qualifying round, earned a decisive 2-0 victory in the finals, winning 192-166 in the first game and 204-147 in the second in a best-of-three Baker scoring format.

Shaler defeated 2018 champion Butler in a much more closely contested semifinal match. The teams tied 171-171 in the first game, with Shaler winning a roll-off 94-74. Shaler won the second game 167-165.

Greensburg Salem has been one of the top girls teams in the WPIBL all season. The team went 10-0 to win the Southeast Section. It had five of the top 12 girls averages in the section — Mattie Mae White (210.59), Erica Moss (173.62), Giavonna Salvio (171.04), Kayla Gaughan (162.81) and Rae Ann Record (160.96).

Joining the top three finishers at Western Regionals will be 13 other qualifiers — Burrell, Hempfield, Norwin, McKeesport, Penn Hills, Freeport, New Castle, OLSH, Franklin Regional, Blackhawk, Moon, Elizabeth Forward and Montour.

White made the all-tournament team, joined by Shaler’s Bella Pilyih, Freeport’s Julia Cummings, Penn Hills’ Ashley Hepler and Norwin’s Justine Stolinski.

Tags: Greensburg Salem