As the Rangers walked into the bowling alley, they knew they were fighting an uphill battle. Their opponent, Lowell, was one of the top teams in the conference. FHC lost the match 23-7, making it their fifth straight loss of the season and pushing their record to 1-5.

There were some positives to take away from the match. Senior Ray Beckering bowled a 209 his first game, followed by a 187 in his first full match this season.

“I was sick with Mono, and I was out for a month,” Ray said. “I missed the first 5 matches which was tough, but I think it was nice for me. Now I’m trying to kick it in and help out the team.”

Another bowler that stepped up for the Rangers was freshman Cope Hungerford. Cope bowled a 136 in his first game and a 189 in his second. Cope has been FHC’s most consistent bowler this season, but he feels like he did not do good enough against the tough competition of Lowell.

“I was pretty disappointed in my 136, because I feel like I could have bowled a better game,” Cope said. “I need to work better under pressure; I feel like today there were a couple of times where I was under pressure and messed up.”

Coach Grant Vermeer believes that getting a key player like Ray back could be the key to start winning these tough matches.

“It was good to have Ray back,” Vermeer said. “It was nice to see him shoot a 200. This was his first full match back, because he was out all of December. Hopefully, he can become the anchor for this team. It’s also been great to have Cope as a guy we can count on. He has a bright season and career ahead of him.”

Vermeer thinks the Rangers need to keep a positive attitude going forward and keep their heads up to start winning.

“Lowell’s tough,” Vermeer said. “4 out of their 5 guys had 6 strikes, and their other guy had 5. We need to learn the patterns better and learn how to not be discouraged.”