After three consecutive second-place finishes at tournaments this season, the LC Girls Varsity Bowling team decided it was time to change that and take first.

The Girls won the 2012 Northwest Indiana Conference Holiday Tournament held at Camelot Lanes in Portage, Ind., on Jan. 1.

“I feel great about [the win] because it’s our first tournament this season taking first [place], unlike taking second in all of the other ones,” Allison Sellers (11) said.

In this tournament, five bowlers from each team bowled three games. The three-game total for the team was the deciding factor in placing because there was no second round as in most tournaments. “I had a feeling that the team thought there would be a roll-off or a stepladder final, so I had to make it clear that there wasn’t,” Coach Stephanie Cooley said.

Because there was no roll-off, the Girls stepped up from an 884 the second game to a 909 the third game. In the end, the team finished with a 2780 series- 174 pins more than second-place Portage.

In addition to the first-place team finish, two bowlers earned spots on the girls all-tournament team, which is made up of the top seven individual girls. Kelly Belzeski (10) made it with a 601 series, and Kierstyn Rush (11) took home the tournament MVP award shooting the high series of a 630.

“I was really shocked that I was MVP because I had never even been on an all-tournament team before, so to be MVP was even better,” Rush said.

The Girls are hoping that this first-place finish will be the start of a new first-place trend in 2012.

“[I hope] we will keep doing what we did Sunday at the rest of our tournaments and then go off and win State,” Sellers said.