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Nebraska Cornhuskers bowling

University of Nebraska–Lincoln bowling team

Summary

University of Nebraska–Lincoln bowling team

Field	Value
name	Nebraska Cornhuskers
founded
logo	Nebraska Cornhuskers logo.svg
logo_size	125
university	University of Nebraska–Lincoln
athletic_director	Troy Dannen
conference	Conference USA
location	Lincoln, Nebraska
coach	Paul Klempa
tenure	7th
arena	Husker Bowling Center
nickname	Cornhuskers
national_champion	1991, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2021
ncaa_tourneys	2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025

The Nebraska Cornhuskers bowling team competes as part of NCAA Division I, representing the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in Conference USA. The program was founded as a club team in 1983 and became a varsity sport in 1997.

Nebraska is the most successful collegiate program in bowling history, winning eleven national championships and qualifying for every NCAA championship. Most of this success came under Bill Straub, who founded the team in 1989 and coached for thirty-six years. The team has been coached by longtime assistant Paul Klempa since Straub's retirement in 2019.

History

Nebraska's bowling program began in 1983 under head coach Bill Straub, who led the team to Women's International Bowling Congress-sanctioned national titles in 1991 and 1995. Women's bowling became an official varsity sport at NU in 1997, though its two-time club champion men's program did not, and the school granted Jennifer Daugherty the first full scholarship in collegiate bowling history. Nebraska won three more WIBC titles before the NCAA sanctioned its first bowling tournament in 2004. The Cornhuskers won the first two NCAA championships under Straub, who retired in 2019 as a ten-time national champion and was elected to the United States Bowling Congress Collegiate Hall of Fame in 2025. The program has never been ranked lower than seventh.

In 2019, Straub retired and longtime assistant Paul Klempa was named head coach. Klempa led NU to its eleventh national title in 2021.

Conference affiliations

Independent (1997–2025)
Conference USA (2025–present)

Coaches

Coaching history

1	2
Bill Straub	1990–2019
Paul Klempa	2019–present

Coaching staff

Julia Bond	Assistant coach	2021	Nebraska

Championships and awards

Team national championships

WIBC: 1991, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001
NCAA: 2004, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2021

Individual awards

National bowler of the year: Kim Berke (1992), Diandra Hyman (2000), Shannon Pluhowsky (2001, 2004, 2005), Lindsay Baker (2006), Amanda Burgoyne (2007), Cassandra Leuthold (2010), Lizabeth Kuhlkin (2015), Raquel Orozco (2020), Crystal Elliot (2021), Jillian Martin (2025)
NCAA championship most outstanding bowler: Shannon Pluhowsky (2004), Amanda Burgoyne (2005), Cassandra Leuthold (2009), Lizabeth Kuhlkin (2013), Julia Bond (2015), Crystal Elliott (2021)
National coach of the year: Bill Straub (2005, 2013, 2017)

NCAA champions

Amanda Burgoyne – 2005
Julia Bond – 2016
Kelly Belzeski – 2017

First-team All-Americans

Twenty Nebraska bowlers have combined for thirty-nine first-team All-America honors, in addition to sixteen second-team and thirteen third-team selections. The National Tenpin Coaches Association replaced the National Collegiate Bowling Coaches Association as the primary selector of All-America teams in 2004.

Kim Berke – 1991
Carrie Machuga – 1993
Andrea Rigby – 1995
Jennifer Daugherty – 1996, 1997, 1998
Brenda Norman – 1996
Brenda Edwards – 1997
Diandra Hyman – 2000, 2001
Shannon Pluhowsky – 2001, 2002, 2005
Kari Schwager – 2002
Amanda Burgoyne – 2005, 2006, 2007
Lindsay Baker – 2005, 2006
Cassandra Leuthold – 2008, 2009, 2010
Kayla Johnson – 2012
Lizabeth Kuhlkin – 2013, 2014, 2015
Julia Bond – 2016, 2017, 2018
Raquel Orozco – 2018, 2019, 2020
Meghan Straub – 2019
Crystal Elliot – 2021, 2023
Jillian Martin – 2023, 2024, 2025
Kayla Verstraete – 2025

Seasons

National champion

2025–26	Paul Klempa

Notes

References

(18 November 1997). "At Nebraska, Daugherty becomes first kingping". [[The Washington Post]].
Dillon Adams. (23 January 2025). "Former Nebraska bowling coach Bill Straub named to 2025 Collegiate Hall of Fame class". [[Lincoln Journal Star]].
Martin Herz. (28 August 2019). "Straub retires after 36 years at Husker bowling helm". [[The Daily Nebraskan]].
"2024–24 Bowling Media Guide". Nebraska Athletics.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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