Freshman Vienna Chapman and her team had already lost two games, and things weren’t looking good for Oregon City’s girls bowling team.

“Everybody thought that after we lost those two games, we were going to be out after that,” Chapman said. “But we kept going.”

Chapman, who had never competed in a bowling tournament at state level before, felt that it was a good first experience.

The state championship, held Friday, Feb. 27 through Sunday, March 1 at Park Lanes Family Entertainment Center in Hillsboro, capped off a season that, for Chapman, has roots going back to age five. 

Her grandparents have always loved the sport, and growing up, going to their house meant sometimes seeing her grandfather’s bowling shows on television. Her grandmother got Chapman everything she needed to get started with bowling and made sure she had the chance to do it.

“She really wanted me to be able to do this and have the opportunity,” Chapman said. “She really helped me with all this stuff.”

That early push has evolved into part of her weekly routine.

You can usually find Chapman at Milwaukie Bowl — her favorite alley — at least two or three times a week, as well as participating in a Saturday morning league with her cousins. 

She bowls on Oregon City’s club team on Monday afternoons from 4 to 5:30 p.m., bringing two of her own bowling balls to every tournament: a curving ball — white, blue, and pink with sparkly swirls — and a strike ball, pink with yellow finger holes. She bowls one handed, typically around 11 to 12 miles per hour. Her high score sits around 205, with an average of 125.

Though her club runs two girls teams that compete separately, Chapman noted that it feels like one group.

“I feel like even though we bowl separately, we’re both really together,” she said. “We really work well together, and everybody’s just really nice.”

Their coaches — parents of one team member — guide the girls through the sport.

“They’re just really nice people, and they’re really good bowlers,” Chapman said. “I really like them.”

Before tournaments, the team circles up, strategizes, and gets themselves ready together. If the cheering ever dies down, the coach picks it back up herself. 

“If we’re not cheering, she’ll be the one that’s cheering for us,” Chapman said.

Outside of bowling, Chapman also plays club soccer with the Eastside Timbers and is on La Salle’s JV soccer team. Club soccer runs Tuesday through Friday, which leaves Monday for bowling practice and Saturday for her league. Fitting both in takes some work, Chapman said.

“Finding time to actually practice” is one of the harder parts, she said. “[Soccer] takes up most of my time, so just being able to balance both of them” is important, she said.

The state tournament unfolded over three days. Friday was a solo competition — 61 bowlers with Chapman finishing in 50th. For Chapman, it was more than just a competition, but also a chance for her to get a feel for the lanes, which were synthetic rather than the real wood she practices on at Milwaukie Bowl.

“On the real wood, your ball picks up the oil more, so it curves more, and it’s easier to curve it,” she said.

The next day, the team tournament swung into action. Her team arrived at 7:30 p.m. and bowled 24 games together. 

“We were doing okay the first 12 games, but it was more of a warm-up,” she said. On Saturday, “you just want to get as high a placement as you could.”

Sunday brought double elimination, a seventh-place starting position, and multiple losses. But they steadied from there, winning the next two to close out the weekend. Chapman took it in stride.

“It was kind of stressful,” Chapman said. “But I feel like, because I’ve done other sports that I think are way more stressful, I’m just kind of used to it now. It’s just easier.”

Off the lanes, the weekend brought the team closer together. They’d grown comfortable at districts, but after state, plans started forming outside of practice.

“After state, they were all like, ‘Oh, we can come pick you up in the summer and we can go do things,’” Chapman said.

Most of the girls are seniors, which makes the rest of this season feel a little more meaningful.

“I’m excited to just bowl with my team,” Chapman said. “Most of the girls on my team are seniors, so they’re not going to be there next year.” 

Looking further ahead, Chapman said she’d consider pursuing bowling in college, partly for the scholarship opportunities the sport can offer. “Bowling isn’t a sport that a lot of people do,” she said.

For Chapman, her lifelong love of bowling has been driven by her appreciation for the sport in addition to its community. 

“It’s a really chill sport that I can just do kind of whenever,” she said. “I’ll always have somebody to take me there because my grandparents love it, so I can go hang out with them when I’m doing it … It’ll keep me close to them.”