Finalists determined at 2025 Intercollegiate Team Championships
April 19, 2025
Jacksonville State's Dannielle Henderson reacts to a quality shot during Friday's final day of match play at the 2025 Intercollegiate Team Championships, which is being contested at South Point Bowling Plaza in Las Vegas.
QUALIFYING
MEN'S BRACKET
WOMEN'S BRACKET
LAS VEGAS - The capacity crowd that packed South Point Bowling Plaza in Las Vegas on Friday to watch the final rounds of match play at the 2025 Intercollegiate Team Championships were treated to six rounds of heart-stopping action over the course of 14 hours with several matches being decided not just during the last frame, but on the final shot.
Nevertheless, after the final balls had been thrown and the last pins had fallen, just two men’s teams and two women’s teams remained, and those squads will be the ones battling it out for national titles on Saturday.
On the women’s side, Jacksonville State (4-0), the 2024 ITC women’s runner-up, will take on Mount Mercy (4-0), which will be making its debut appearance in the national finals title match.
The men’s championship bout will see perennial powerhouse Wichita State (4-0) squaring off against Wisconsin-Whitewater (4-1).
Wichita State will be seeking to extend its own record by securing the 14th national title in program history while Wisconsin-Whitewater will be looking for ITC title No. 2 – The Warhawks won their first ITC men’s national championship in 2022.
The finals, which will be taped Saturday, will air on CBS Sports Network on Tuesdays in May. The women’s ITC show is scheduled to air on May 6 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern with the men’s finals slated to follow on May 13 at 7 p.m. Eastern.
Both the men’s and women’s title contests will be best-of-five Baker matches.
It's possible that some of Saturday’s championship-round contenders are a bit disappointed that the finals use a shorter format than that which was employed during the two days of bracket match play.
It’s unlikely that the men from Wisconsin-Whitewater share that opinion, however; after all, they’ve done more than their fair share of bowling already.
That’s because over the course of Thursday and Friday’s qualifying and match-play rounds, the Warhawks logged a grand total of 58 Baker games. No other team reaching Saturday’s finals bowled more than 47.
Thankfully for Whitewater, it put all that time on the lanes to good use.
The Warhawks began their trek to the men’s title match with a pair of 4-3 victories during Rounds 1 and 2 on Thursday, the first over St. Ambrose and the second over Savannah College of Art and Design – Savannah.
Whitewater picked up where it left off when action resumed on Friday as it took down first-time ITC national finals participant Milligan. That match also ended with a final score of 4-3.
The Buffaloes turned the tables just two rounds later, however, rallying from an 0-2 deficit to defeat Whitewater 4-3 in the first match of the bracket finals. That gave each team one loss and forced a rematch to determine who would advance to Saturday’s men’s title match.
As expected, the third match of the tournament between the Warhawks and Buffaloes was just as entertaining as the first two.
The upstarts from Milligan took Game 1 by a final score of 218-162, but Whitewater quickly fought back, squaring the match 1-1 thanks to a 227-162 win during Game 2.
Game 3 went the way of the Buffaloes, this time by a final margin of 217-188, but, not surprisingly, the Warhawks battled back to win Game 4 (237-219) and tie the match back up at two wins apiece.
The raucous fans packed into South Point Bowling Plaza had to be expecting Milligan to come back and win Game 5. After all, that’s the pattern the two teams had been following up to that point this week.
Whitewater, on the other hand, had other ideas.
Rather than surrendering the lead back to Milligan, the Warhawks established one of their own, their first of the match, thanks to a 232-166 Game 5 victory.
The sixth game was close from start to finish with Milligan holding a one-pin advantage as both teams approached the 10th frame.
The Buffaloes’ anchor bowler stepped up with a chance to throw three strikes in the 10th to shut Whitewater out and send the two teams to yet another winner-take-all seventh game.
Milligan’s anchor delivered a terrific shot to start the final frame, but the high-flush hit resulted not in strike, but in a solid 9-pin.
That meant the Whitewater anchor could secure the game and match with just a mark and some count. That mark came in the form of a solid strike, which sent the Warhawks through to the title match while forcing Milligan to settle for a third-place finish.
While battling six or seven games every round wasn’t the game plan going in, Wisconsin-Whitewater Head Coach Brandon Mooney had a fairly straightforward explanation for why his Warhawks seemed to enjoy going the distance in every match.
“We paid so much for our flights out here that we wanted to maximize our bowling time,” Mooney said.
All joking aside, Mooney acknowledged that having to bowl the maximum number of games, or close to it, has its drawbacks; nevertheless, he expects his team to be at its best when the TV lights come on Saturday evening.
“It definitely takes a lot of mental toughness to ward off fatigue, stay in it and have the fortitude to keep making quality shots,” Mooney said. “Still, I think we’re ready for tomorrow. Obviously, Wichita has the experience and is a very talented team. Still, we’ve had a good look on the fresh, so I think we’re ready to roll.”
Mooney’s troops will need to be ready if they hope to get past Wichita State, which enjoyed a much smoother and shorter path to the title match.
The Shockers started their run with a pair of victories on Thursday, the first a 4-2 decision over McKendree and the second a 4-3 win versus Pikeville.
The path was even smoother for Wichita State on Friday as it began its day with a 4-2 win over Marian-Indiana during Round 3 and then capped the evening off with a 4-0 shutout of that same Knights squad during the bracket finals to put itself in position to compete for yet another men’s national title.
Even though his teams have found themselves in this position many times over the years, Wichita State Head Coach Rick Steelsmith doesn’t take these opportunities for granted.
“This tournament is so hard to win that any time you get an opportunity, you want to take advantage of it,” Steelsmith said. “Also, we have a couple of great seniors that we’d love to send off with a title, so we’re going to go out there tomorrow and just try to keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
While Steelsmith and the Shockers will attempt to keep doing what they’ve been doing, Saturday’s ITC women’s finalists will both be attempting to do something they’ve never done before.
There will definitely be a first-time ITC women’s national champion crowned at South Point Bowling Plaza on Saturday as neither Jacksonville State nor Mount Mercy have ever brought home the United States Bowling Congress Collegiate season’s top prize.
However, both teams are far from underdogs.
After all, Jacksonville State has been one of the top-ranked teams in NCAA bowling since the program’s inception in 2024. The Gamecocks won the 2024 NCAA national title, were runners up at the 2024 ITCs and narrowly missed successfully defending their NCAA crown this season, falling 4-3 to Youngstown State at the 2025 NCAA Bowling Championship on April 12.
The Mount Mercy women, meanwhile, finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in the USBC Collegiate rankings for the third year in a row and have been considered one of the strongest programs in collegiate bowling for several seasons now.
As such, no matter which squad emerges victorious on Saturday, the result will hardly be deemed surprising.
Jacksonville State has looked virtually unstoppable thus far at this year’s national finals.
The Gamecocks started things off by dominating the 24-team women’s field during qualifying on Thursday, finishing with a 24-game Baker total of 5,178 (a 215.75 average), which was the third-highest 24-game mark in ITC women’s history.
For an encore, Jacksonville State ran roughshod through bracket match play, losing a total of three games over the course of four best-of-seven matches.
The onslaught began with victories over Lindenwood and Savannah College of Art and Design – Savannah on Thursday. The winning margin in those matches was 4-0 and 4-1, respectively.
The Gamecocks then scored a pair of victories over Saint Xavier on Friday, the first a 4-2 win during Round 3 in the Winners Bracket and the second a 4-0 sweep during the bracket finals to punch their ticket to the ITC women’s title match for the second year in a row.
Jacksonville State Head Coach Shannon O’Keefe knew that her team would be extra motivated coming into ITCs after narrowly missing out on another NCAA title less than a week ago.
“Going into this week, I told my husband that I wouldn’t want to bowl my girls only because they were mad, hungry and determined,” O’Keefe said. “That’s exactly what we’ve seen. When things have gone a little sideways, they’ve bounced back really quickly. They’re determined and gritty, which is exciting to see out of a team this young.”
While her team is all grit, O’Keefe actually acknowledged having a bit of a soft spot for Mount Mercy Head Coach Andy Diercks as she and husband Bryan O’Keefe have been close friends with the Mustangs’ head man for several years.
“We love Andy (Diercks); he is a very dear friend of ours,” O’Keefe said. “Obviously, we want to win, but we’re thrilled for Andy and his team. If it doesn’t happen for us, we’ll be some of the first people to hug and congratulate him. That’s pretty awesome when it’s someone you love and adore so much.”
Diercks was equally complimentary of the O’Keefes.
“Brian and Shannon are two of my best friends in the whole world, so it’s surreal and a dream come true to have this matchup,” Diercks said. “Regardless of the outcome, I wouldn’t want to face anyone else during our first TV show.”
If the Mustangs are able to perform as effectively on Saturday’s show as they did during match play on Thursday and Friday, then that outcome could certainly end in their favor.
Mount Mercy was rarely pushed during bracket play.
The Mustangs kicked things off with a pair of wins on Thursday, 4-2 over Wisconsin-Whitewater and 4-1 against Newman.
That was just the beginning, however, as Mount Mercy was even more stout on Friday, topping a very talented Maryville team 4-2 in Round 3 and 4-0 during the bracket finals to secure the first championship-match appearance in program history.
Understandably, Diercks was very impressed with his team’s performance.
“We made some really good adjustments after qualifying because things didn’t go particularly well during the early stages,” Diercks said. “We bowled incredible after that though. We came in with a new game plan and stuck to it, and the girls executed wonderfully. My hat is off to them.”
Diercks knows that his team will have to be at its best to take down Jacksonville State, but he isn’t likely to go digging into his bag of tricks during the title match; instead, he plans to stick with what’s gotten them here.
“We have to continue to do what we’ve been doing the whole time throughout match play and not get intimidated by the situation,” Diercks said. “We can’t let the moment get bigger than it is. It’s still bowling, 60 feet foul line to head pin. We just need to stay present and focused.”
The 2025 ITC kicked off Thursday with a 24-game Baker block determining seeding for the bracket for the top 16 men’s and 16 women’s teams in the country. The opening rounds of match play took place Thursday with all teams returning to South Point Bowling Plaza on Friday.
Teams qualified for the ITC through four sectional qualifiers held throughout the country in March. Teams had to place in the top four in their respective sectionals to advance.
BowlTV.com provided live coverage of all qualifying and match-play rounds of the Intercollegiate Team Championships leading up to the televised finals.
CLICK HERE for more information on the Intercollegiate Team Championships.
QUALIFYING
MEN'S BRACKET
WOMEN'S BRACKET
LAS VEGAS - The capacity crowd that packed South Point Bowling Plaza in Las Vegas on Friday to watch the final rounds of match play at the 2025 Intercollegiate Team Championships were treated to six rounds of heart-stopping action over the course of 14 hours with several matches being decided not just during the last frame, but on the final shot.
Nevertheless, after the final balls had been thrown and the last pins had fallen, just two men’s teams and two women’s teams remained, and those squads will be the ones battling it out for national titles on Saturday.
On the women’s side, Jacksonville State (4-0), the 2024 ITC women’s runner-up, will take on Mount Mercy (4-0), which will be making its debut appearance in the national finals title match.
The men’s championship bout will see perennial powerhouse Wichita State (4-0) squaring off against Wisconsin-Whitewater (4-1).
Wichita State will be seeking to extend its own record by securing the 14th national title in program history while Wisconsin-Whitewater will be looking for ITC title No. 2 – The Warhawks won their first ITC men’s national championship in 2022.
The finals, which will be taped Saturday, will air on CBS Sports Network on Tuesdays in May. The women’s ITC show is scheduled to air on May 6 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern with the men’s finals slated to follow on May 13 at 7 p.m. Eastern.
Both the men’s and women’s title contests will be best-of-five Baker matches.
It's possible that some of Saturday’s championship-round contenders are a bit disappointed that the finals use a shorter format than that which was employed during the two days of bracket match play.
It’s unlikely that the men from Wisconsin-Whitewater share that opinion, however; after all, they’ve done more than their fair share of bowling already.
That’s because over the course of Thursday and Friday’s qualifying and match-play rounds, the Warhawks logged a grand total of 58 Baker games. No other team reaching Saturday’s finals bowled more than 47.
Thankfully for Whitewater, it put all that time on the lanes to good use.
The Warhawks began their trek to the men’s title match with a pair of 4-3 victories during Rounds 1 and 2 on Thursday, the first over St. Ambrose and the second over Savannah College of Art and Design – Savannah.
Whitewater picked up where it left off when action resumed on Friday as it took down first-time ITC national finals participant Milligan. That match also ended with a final score of 4-3.
The Buffaloes turned the tables just two rounds later, however, rallying from an 0-2 deficit to defeat Whitewater 4-3 in the first match of the bracket finals. That gave each team one loss and forced a rematch to determine who would advance to Saturday’s men’s title match.
As expected, the third match of the tournament between the Warhawks and Buffaloes was just as entertaining as the first two.
The upstarts from Milligan took Game 1 by a final score of 218-162, but Whitewater quickly fought back, squaring the match 1-1 thanks to a 227-162 win during Game 2.
Game 3 went the way of the Buffaloes, this time by a final margin of 217-188, but, not surprisingly, the Warhawks battled back to win Game 4 (237-219) and tie the match back up at two wins apiece.
The raucous fans packed into South Point Bowling Plaza had to be expecting Milligan to come back and win Game 5. After all, that’s the pattern the two teams had been following up to that point this week.
Whitewater, on the other hand, had other ideas.
Rather than surrendering the lead back to Milligan, the Warhawks established one of their own, their first of the match, thanks to a 232-166 Game 5 victory.
The sixth game was close from start to finish with Milligan holding a one-pin advantage as both teams approached the 10th frame.
The Buffaloes’ anchor bowler stepped up with a chance to throw three strikes in the 10th to shut Whitewater out and send the two teams to yet another winner-take-all seventh game.
Milligan’s anchor delivered a terrific shot to start the final frame, but the high-flush hit resulted not in strike, but in a solid 9-pin.
That meant the Whitewater anchor could secure the game and match with just a mark and some count. That mark came in the form of a solid strike, which sent the Warhawks through to the title match while forcing Milligan to settle for a third-place finish.
While battling six or seven games every round wasn’t the game plan going in, Wisconsin-Whitewater Head Coach Brandon Mooney had a fairly straightforward explanation for why his Warhawks seemed to enjoy going the distance in every match.
“We paid so much for our flights out here that we wanted to maximize our bowling time,” Mooney said.
All joking aside, Mooney acknowledged that having to bowl the maximum number of games, or close to it, has its drawbacks; nevertheless, he expects his team to be at its best when the TV lights come on Saturday evening.
“It definitely takes a lot of mental toughness to ward off fatigue, stay in it and have the fortitude to keep making quality shots,” Mooney said. “Still, I think we’re ready for tomorrow. Obviously, Wichita has the experience and is a very talented team. Still, we’ve had a good look on the fresh, so I think we’re ready to roll.”
Mooney’s troops will need to be ready if they hope to get past Wichita State, which enjoyed a much smoother and shorter path to the title match.
The Shockers started their run with a pair of victories on Thursday, the first a 4-2 decision over McKendree and the second a 4-3 win versus Pikeville.
The path was even smoother for Wichita State on Friday as it began its day with a 4-2 win over Marian-Indiana during Round 3 and then capped the evening off with a 4-0 shutout of that same Knights squad during the bracket finals to put itself in position to compete for yet another men’s national title.
Even though his teams have found themselves in this position many times over the years, Wichita State Head Coach Rick Steelsmith doesn’t take these opportunities for granted.
“This tournament is so hard to win that any time you get an opportunity, you want to take advantage of it,” Steelsmith said. “Also, we have a couple of great seniors that we’d love to send off with a title, so we’re going to go out there tomorrow and just try to keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
While Steelsmith and the Shockers will attempt to keep doing what they’ve been doing, Saturday’s ITC women’s finalists will both be attempting to do something they’ve never done before.
There will definitely be a first-time ITC women’s national champion crowned at South Point Bowling Plaza on Saturday as neither Jacksonville State nor Mount Mercy have ever brought home the United States Bowling Congress Collegiate season’s top prize.
However, both teams are far from underdogs.
After all, Jacksonville State has been one of the top-ranked teams in NCAA bowling since the program’s inception in 2024. The Gamecocks won the 2024 NCAA national title, were runners up at the 2024 ITCs and narrowly missed successfully defending their NCAA crown this season, falling 4-3 to Youngstown State at the 2025 NCAA Bowling Championship on April 12.
The Mount Mercy women, meanwhile, finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in the USBC Collegiate rankings for the third year in a row and have been considered one of the strongest programs in collegiate bowling for several seasons now.
As such, no matter which squad emerges victorious on Saturday, the result will hardly be deemed surprising.
Jacksonville State has looked virtually unstoppable thus far at this year’s national finals.
The Gamecocks started things off by dominating the 24-team women’s field during qualifying on Thursday, finishing with a 24-game Baker total of 5,178 (a 215.75 average), which was the third-highest 24-game mark in ITC women’s history.
For an encore, Jacksonville State ran roughshod through bracket match play, losing a total of three games over the course of four best-of-seven matches.
The onslaught began with victories over Lindenwood and Savannah College of Art and Design – Savannah on Thursday. The winning margin in those matches was 4-0 and 4-1, respectively.
The Gamecocks then scored a pair of victories over Saint Xavier on Friday, the first a 4-2 win during Round 3 in the Winners Bracket and the second a 4-0 sweep during the bracket finals to punch their ticket to the ITC women’s title match for the second year in a row.
Jacksonville State Head Coach Shannon O’Keefe knew that her team would be extra motivated coming into ITCs after narrowly missing out on another NCAA title less than a week ago.
“Going into this week, I told my husband that I wouldn’t want to bowl my girls only because they were mad, hungry and determined,” O’Keefe said. “That’s exactly what we’ve seen. When things have gone a little sideways, they’ve bounced back really quickly. They’re determined and gritty, which is exciting to see out of a team this young.”
While her team is all grit, O’Keefe actually acknowledged having a bit of a soft spot for Mount Mercy Head Coach Andy Diercks as she and husband Bryan O’Keefe have been close friends with the Mustangs’ head man for several years.
“We love Andy (Diercks); he is a very dear friend of ours,” O’Keefe said. “Obviously, we want to win, but we’re thrilled for Andy and his team. If it doesn’t happen for us, we’ll be some of the first people to hug and congratulate him. That’s pretty awesome when it’s someone you love and adore so much.”
Diercks was equally complimentary of the O’Keefes.
“Brian and Shannon are two of my best friends in the whole world, so it’s surreal and a dream come true to have this matchup,” Diercks said. “Regardless of the outcome, I wouldn’t want to face anyone else during our first TV show.”
If the Mustangs are able to perform as effectively on Saturday’s show as they did during match play on Thursday and Friday, then that outcome could certainly end in their favor.
Mount Mercy was rarely pushed during bracket play.
The Mustangs kicked things off with a pair of wins on Thursday, 4-2 over Wisconsin-Whitewater and 4-1 against Newman.
That was just the beginning, however, as Mount Mercy was even more stout on Friday, topping a very talented Maryville team 4-2 in Round 3 and 4-0 during the bracket finals to secure the first championship-match appearance in program history.
Understandably, Diercks was very impressed with his team’s performance.
“We made some really good adjustments after qualifying because things didn’t go particularly well during the early stages,” Diercks said. “We bowled incredible after that though. We came in with a new game plan and stuck to it, and the girls executed wonderfully. My hat is off to them.”
Diercks knows that his team will have to be at its best to take down Jacksonville State, but he isn’t likely to go digging into his bag of tricks during the title match; instead, he plans to stick with what’s gotten them here.
“We have to continue to do what we’ve been doing the whole time throughout match play and not get intimidated by the situation,” Diercks said. “We can’t let the moment get bigger than it is. It’s still bowling, 60 feet foul line to head pin. We just need to stay present and focused.”
The 2025 ITC kicked off Thursday with a 24-game Baker block determining seeding for the bracket for the top 16 men’s and 16 women’s teams in the country. The opening rounds of match play took place Thursday with all teams returning to South Point Bowling Plaza on Friday.
Teams qualified for the ITC through four sectional qualifiers held throughout the country in March. Teams had to place in the top four in their respective sectionals to advance.
BowlTV.com provided live coverage of all qualifying and match-play rounds of the Intercollegiate Team Championships leading up to the televised finals.
CLICK HERE for more information on the Intercollegiate Team Championships.