Senior linguistics major Chris Hidey joined a crowd of bowlers for the first league meeting at TerpZone last night.

At 6:59 p.m. last night, Andre Adams was glancing nervously at the clock. The first night of the TerpZone Bowling League was scheduled to begin in one minute, and the room was nearly empty.

After a meeting the previous week that had generated high interest, Adams, TerpZone program coordinator, was anxious to see if students would follow through.

By 7:01 p.m., every lane was packed.

Bowlers exchanged high fives and yells of encouragement as nearly 40 students kicked off the inaugural night of the university’s bowling league in the Stamp Student Union, the first organized bowling group since TerpZone opened in September.

Whether seasoned veterans or newcomers to the sport, students seemed thrilled at the chance to bowl competitively.

Samantha Tenenbaum, a junior accounting major, was ecstatic there is finally a bowling alley on the campus. For the past two years, she and her friends have had to travel to Laurel whenever they got the urge to bowl.

“I’m so excited to have the opportunity to bowl every week,” Tenenbaum said. “For me, bowling is all about personal competition and improving. This league will give me the chance to practice my skills more consistently.”

When asked if the guys give her a hard time about being the only girl on the team, Tenenbaum gave a smug look.

“They can’t really say anything; I’ve beat them all,” she said, as junior English major Stephen Sharon frantically tried to redeem himself.

“I let her!” he mouthed.

Tom Wible, a junior physics major, was also excited at the chance to bowl competitively again. An avid bowler for ten years at home, he had never had the opportunity to continue with his favorite sport.

Wible and his teammate, sophomore computer engineering major Chris Stalowski, thought they had a good chance of beating anyone; but that didn’t stop them from sizing up the competition.

“We’re kind of worried about that team,” Stalowski said, motioning to the group of freshmen in the next lane. “They’re getting a lot of strikes.”

Although teams compete and end the year in a round robin tournament, another factor that drew students was the informal atmosphere of the league.

Christopher Most, a freshman engineering major looked forward to getting to hang out with all of his friends. He liked the idea of not only being able to bowl, but also having fun.

For others, the league provided an informal opening to the world of athletics.

“Realistically, this is the only sport I can actually compete in,” Sharon said.

As the night went on, the clatter of pins falling and taunts of gutterballs echoed. Adams looked relaxed.

“I’m very happy about the way this is going,” he said, while scrambling to collect registration fees and organize team rosters.

Adams said he came up with the idea for a bowling league last semester. There had previously been a bowling league at the university, but it disbanded about four years ago when the alley was shut down for renovations to the Union’s activity center.

“When TerpZone opened, I knew I had to take advantage of the beautiful new facilities,” Adams said.

The opening of the league seemed to go flawlessly. The only conflict Adams ran into was last semester when several students attempted to start a Terrapin Bowlers Club. Their meetings coincided with the league’s, and the club eventually had to disband.

Adams said it was unintentional and just an unfortunate coincidence.

Brian Cohan, a freshman engineer major, was the president and founder of the Terrapin Bowlers Club. He admitted he was disappointed when his club ended because of the league, but he didn’t let it keep him from bowling. He and his friends joined the league themselves.

“There’s no use in not joining if you have your own ball and shoes,” Cohan said.

Now that the league is officially underway, Adams hopes it has a long history ahead of it. His next goal is to eventually compete with other universities in the area.