On Sunday Dec. 8 the bowling team had a match against FZN. This was no ordinary match. Instead of playing at Cave Springs or Harvest Lanes, where most matches are played, they played at Plaza Lanes.

“I don’t understand why we played at Plaza,” junior Alan Paaren said. “We are only scheduled there once a year.”

FHN 1, consisting of one freshman, one junior, and three seniors, beat FZN last year. Coming into the match senior David McFeely thought they had a strong advantage.

“Going into it I knew that the team wasn’t very good and we generally beat bad teams, but because we weren’t used to the lanes we didn’t do very well,” McFeely said.

According to senior Robbie Hilker, most bowlers do not like to play at Plaza because the lanes are synthetic wood and have a different oil pattern than most bowling alleys. The oil patterns of the lanes cause the ball to spin in a different direction than their ball normally would.

“Our team struggled this week,” Hilker said. “The oil patterns made it hard to throw a good ball,”

FHN tied their match 16-16. The first game they played they had trouble getting used to the spin of the ball. By the third game they started to understand it but were unlucky with multiple split pins.

“This match was frustrating because I was watching the team get frustrated about how to throw,” coach Bob Paaren said. “This was a hard shot because of all the gutterballs the first game to split pins in the end.”

Next week the team plays on Sunday Dec. 15. They are hoping to get better by practicing at Plaza Lanes. The team will not have to worry about the patterns until next year.

“Next week we should definitely get some practice with the oil patterns considering how we played,” Hilker said. “I’m just glad we don’t have any more games there.”