Bowling Ranked the Top 20 in 2025-26 Preseason NTCA Poll
The Green Wave bowling team earned 498 overall points to secure a national ranking in the first poll of the season. The program finished the 2024-25 season ranked No. 20 with an overall record of 60-45 (57.1 winning percentage). The program recorded nine top-10 wins last season with a team pin average of 186.9.
Tulane was one of 12 teams from Conference USA that were ranked in the initial top 25 by the NCAA coaches. Jacksonville State enters the season as the No. 1 overall team after concluding the prior campaign as the national runner-up. Each of the first six teams in the preseason poll are from Conference USA with Nebraska, Vanderbilt, 2025 National Champion Youngstown State, Wichita State, and Arkansas State all following the Gamecocks in order. At No. 19, the Green Wave rank ahead of three fellow conference mates, Wright State (20) and Valparaiso (21).
Tulane’s bowling squad officially became a member of Conference USA in the summer of 2023 along with eight other programs during its first season – Arkansas State, Jacksonville State, Louisiana Tech, Sam Houston State, Stephen F. Austin, Valparaiso, Vanderbilt and Youngstown State.
Paige Matiasek led Tulane in 2024-25 with her 410 strikes thrown. She was followed by Emma Fetterman with 405 and Mia Stolakis with 401.
The 2025-26 roster includes returners Matiasek, Fetterman, Solakis, Emma Figert, Linnea Holcomb, and Juanelyz Solla. They are joined by a trio of newcomers – Valeria Colon, Sarah Rubi, and Lyllian Smith. The Green Wave are led by head coach Hayley Veitch in her 14th season.
Doug has covered a gamut of sporting events in his fifty-plus years in the field. He started doing sideline reporting for Louisiana Tech football games for the student radio station. Doug was Sports Director for KNOE-AM/FM in Monroe in the mid-80s, winning numerous awards from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association for Best Sportscast and Best Play-by-Play. High school play-by-play for teams in Monroe, Natchitoches, New Orleans, and Thibodaux, LA dot his resume. He did college play-by-play for Northwestern State University in Natchitoches for nine years. Then, moving to the Crescent City, Doug did television PBP of Tulane games and even filled in for legendary Tulane broadcaster, Ken Berthelot in the only game Kenny ever missed while doing the Green Wave games. His father was an alumnus of Tulane in the 1940s, so Doug has attended Tulane football games in old Tulane Stadium, the Superdome, and Yulman. He was one of the 86,000 plus on December 1, 1973, sitting in the North End Zone to seeTulane shutout the LSU Tigers, 14-0. He was there when the Posse ruled Fogelman and in Turchin when the Wave made it to the World Series. He currently is the public address voice of the Tulane baseball team.