GIRLS BOWLING: Bishop Gorman’s Leah Glazer rolls to 4A title

Bishop Gorman’s Leah Glazer and Tech’s Eri Leong proved to be the kingpins of girls bowling Friday, as they took home the state titles at Gold Coast Bowling Center.

Glazer not only took home first place in Class 4A but also was the overall highest scorer in either boys or girls with a series score of 747. Glazer ran away with the title, as the second-place finisher, Sierra Vista’s Vanessa Fuzie, finished with 604.

Glazer, who signed a letter of intent with Arkansas State, was the only girl in her group to break 200 in every game in the series.

“It was nerve-wracking the last few frames knowing what kind of score was on the line,” Glazer said.

The senior finished in third place in this event her sophomore year and second place last year.

“By your senior year, you want to get it done,” she said. “Just in my head, I knew it was there and I had the opportunity to do it and get it done. It was the greatest feeling ever.”

Glazer had put some extra pressure on herself to win in her final season.

“It was definitely more me than anyone else,” Glazer said. “You work so hard that you get to the point where you think can do it, you know you can do it. And just going out there and executing shots is the hardest part of it all.”

Glazer said she didn’t necessarily expect to come in Friday and roll the kind of game she did, but she said she expected to make the kind of throws that were “worthy” of the score she made.

“I figured there was a score out there that I’d be able to reach,”she said.

In Class 3A, Leong clinched her state title with a series score of 557, edging Mojave’s Maria Richardson by 12 pins and completing a family legacy.

“I’ve been bowling since first grade, and now I’m a sophomore, so that’s a lot. It’s more than half of my life,” Leong said. “My whole family bowls, my brother was on Team USA. We bowled together last year when he was a senior.”

Leong’s best game was her last as she bowled a 224 in the final game of her series. She was down 30 pins to Richardson before that final game, and she was able to do exactly what she needed to do to win.

“I knew I was down after the first and second game,” she said. “I just knew that it only takes two makes to pull through. That’s what I had to do, so that’s what I went out try to do.”

Contact reporter Bill Slane at bslane@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4559. Follow @bill_slane on Twitter.