One thing that La Salle-Peru freshman Olivia Weber likes about bowling is the individual nature of the sport within the confines of a team.

“I like how it’s an individual sport but you always have your team to encourage you through it too,” Weber said. “If you lose, it’s your fault and not the team’s fault. You’re accountable.”

In her first high school season, Weber managed to have plenty of individual success while also helping the team succeed.

Weber averaged an area-best 194, led the area with a 267 high game and rolled a 712 series.

The freshman led the Cavaliers to an 11-1 record.

For all she accomplished this spring, Weber is the 2021 NewsTribune Girls Bowler of the Year.

“Olivia had a great season,” L-P coach Jim McCabe said. “She came in as a freshman and stepped up to the plate. She carried a lot of weight on her shoulders. She came in strong like we expected her to be and had a great year. She put together fantastic numbers. She worked very hard. She had some growing pains as a freshman trying to figure out how the system worked and how things went, but she adapted pretty quickly and performed.”

McCabe had high expectations for Weber after coaching her from fifth grade to eighth grade at Waltham.

“As a fifth grader, she had good talent,” McCabe said. “She had growing pains just like any fifth grader would. They’re learning a lot and changing a lot at that point, but she had a lot of talent. It just needed to be smoothed out to get things on track, and she’s done that over the years. She keeps improving.”

Weber credits her family for helping her develop her bowling skills as her father, Scott, got her into the sport when she was 6 and she often works with her sister, Isabella, who is a junior at L-P and also is a NewsTribune All-Area pick after averaging a 187.

“I like it,” Olivia Weber said about bowling with her sister. “We know how each other works. She doesn’t get in my way and I don’t get in her way. She does a good job encouraging me and she pushes me to do better because I always want to beat her. We’re very competitive.”

Outside of the L-P team, the Weber sisters bowl in leagues and tournaments and go to the bowling alley four or five times per week to hone their skills.

“We usually bowl four or five games each, work on drills and do a game working on certain aspects of bowling,” Olivia Weber said. “We do spare games where we pick up the 7 and 10 pins the whole game. Or we stand at the top of the lane and work on our release and where to place the ball on the lane.”

McCabe said her work ethic and willingness to learn play a big role in her success.

“I think what makes her a good bowler is she has the ability to concentrate on her game and the ability to look at a situation and break it down if something is going wrong and how to fix it,” McCabe said. “She’s open minded about getting some help and instruction. That makes her a good, well-rounded bowler. She knows and understands what her ball is doing on the lanes. She’s also very unflappable. She doesn’t get flustered with the competition around her. She’s very much focused on her game.”

With a success freshman season under her belt in which she placed 12 in the virtual state tournament and recorded a 700 series, which McCabe called uncommon for a freshman, Weber has high hopes for the future as she hopes to average at least 200 next year and help the team to a state berth.

“She has great potential,” McCabe said. “She has some things she has to work out, but I think her high school career has no place to go but up.”