Warren, Ohio - After three years, the Saginaw Valley State University bowling team has reclaimed the American Heartland Intercollegiate Bowling Conference (AHIBC) title. The Conference first began in 2004 and the SVSU bowling team won the title every year until Grand Valley dethroned the cardinals at the 2007-08 event.

The Cardinals have had a pretty quiet season which started back in September. There lone two victories came in their first event at AHIBC I in Dayton, Ohio and three weeks ago at AHIBC IV in Monroe, Michigan. Despite their seemingly bleak season, the win at the conference finals is a good start as the team enters post-season competition, with their eyes set on reclaiming the National title in April.

The Cardinals competed against 23 other AHIBC programs at Crest Lanes. The format comprised 8 qualifying games, after which the teams were seeded into a 32 team bracket with the top 8 teams receiving first round byes. Once in the bracket the teams competed in double elimination head-to-head match play. All the games were played using the baker format, where each of the 5 players roll 2 frames of a single game. The winners bracket was a best of 7 format and the losers bracket was a best of five format.

The Cardinals competed with two separate teams with the A team made up of the top seven bowlers and the B team made up of the next six. The A team got off to a slower start than the B team qualifying 6th and 3rd respectively, but both teams were awarded first round byes in match play. Then in round 2 both teams easily won their matches and moved on. Unfortunately, after qualifying both teams were seeded in the same 8 team bracket and met in round three. Game one the A team easily won 206-149, but then the B team ran away with the match and won the next 4 games 209-240, 213-228, 223-230, 222-224 and sent the A team into the loser's bracket. The B team continued to bowl well the rest of the day and made it all the way to the winner's bracket final where they lost to Youngstown State University. In the loser's bracket, the A team was a force to be reckoned with and all matches were decided in three or four games except for one. Last year's champions, Wright State University, was the only team that put up a good fight, but the cardinals prevailed and continued their dominance of the loser's bracket. After making it all the way through the loser's bracket, the A team once again met up with the B team after they lost to Youngstown St. This time the A team won decidedly 3-0 in the best of five match and won the right to bowl against Youngstown St for the championship. Since Youngstown St had yet to lose, the Cardinals had to beat them twice to claim the title. In the fist match, Youngstown St proved to be worthy competitors and every game was settled in the final frames. However, the Cardinals came through and won the match 4-2 in the best of seven. This meant that they would have to beat Youngstown St once more in a best of five match to walk away champions. After the first game, the cardinals appeared poised to win quickly beating Youngstown St 233-200, but Youngstown St fought back in game two and narrowly won 219-220. However, the Youngstown St lost its steam and the cardinals ran away with the next two games 201-181 and 233-195 and reclaimed the title.

The Cardinals will return to the lanes when they travel to their Nationals qualifier in Chattanooga, Tenn. on March 13-14 at Holiday Bowl Brainerd. The team must finish in the top four out of the 16 team field to qualify for Nationals to be held in El Paso, Texas on April 15-18.