Saint Anselm College has announced the addition of women's bowling as a varsity sport. The program will begin competing during the 2022-23 academic year and a head coach will be announced in the near future.
Women's bowling will become the 19th varsity sport offered at Saint Anselm. Earlier this year, the College introduced women's golf, which will also begin competition in the fall of 2022. The Hawks will train and compete at Yankee Lanes in Manchester.
"With the introduction of women's bowling, Saint Anselm continues to provide athletics opportunities to female student-athletes in a growing sport," said Dr. Joseph A. Favazza, president of Saint Anselm College. "Adding the sport will allow Saint Anselm to attract new students to the College from here in New England and also throughout the country."
The Hawks applied for and were accepted to the East Coast Conference as an associate member in a vote by the league's Presidents' Council. Saint Anselm becomes the 14th member of the ECC in women's bowling and will be eligible for the league's automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA National Collegiate Women's Bowling Championship.
Saint Anselm becomes one of just three institutions in New England that sponsor the sport of women's bowling. Adelphi, a member of the Northeast-10 Conference alongside Saint Anselm, has sponsored the sport since 2004. One of the fastest-growing sports in the country, 24 institutions across all levels of NCAA competition have added women's bowling to its varsity sport offerings since 2015-16.
According to the most recent report from the National Federation of State High School Associations, girls bowling is sponsored by high schools in 28 states and over 28,000 students were participants on 2,925 teams across the country. Women's bowling was listed among the initial NCAA Emerging Sports for Women in 1994 and attained NCAA Championship status in 2004.
The College now sponsors 11 varsity sports for women and eight for men.