On a roll

After her 10th strike March 18 at Lakeshore Lanes, Jessica Huff had everyone’s attention.

Huff, who bowls for Mike’s Repair in the Tuesday Night Ladies league at Lakeshore Lanes, had just bowled nine perfect frames and opened the 10th frame with a strike.

“I turned around and everybody was just staring at me,” Huff said. “Everyone just stopped.”

She said she got nervous after the ninth frame and really nervous after the 10th strike.

“I told myself to take a deep breath, relax,” she said.

Her next roll hit its mark, putting the perfect 300 game just one more strike away.

“I threw my last one and it came up a little bit high, but it knocked all the pins over,” Huff said. “I jumped up and everybody started screaming and yelling. It was a great feeling.”

Huff, of Gresham, is the fifth woman in the Shawano-Clintonville USBC Association history to record a perfect game and the first since Tami Pullen did it in 2009.

Huff is no stranger to bowling or even perfect games. She has been bowling since she was 3 years old and has an uncle, Bob, and brother, Jason, who have also logged perfect games.

She bowled a 700 series when she was just 14. Seven years later and a week before she got her perfect game, she bowled her second 700.

“I haven’t gotten one since then, so once I got that, then my goal was to get a 300,” Huff said.

Huff said her recent success may have something to do with switching to a new ball.

“The one I had wasn’t hooking as well as I wanted,” she said. “I was sick of it. I needed a new ball and I finally got it.”

It was shortly after switching from her old Brunswick to her Hammer that she bowled the 700 series.

Her 300 game was certified by the United States Bowling Congress, and she received a perfect-game ring to prove it.

“My next goal is to get a 200 average,” Huff said. “My average right now is a 197. My next step is getting that 200 average and getting more 700 series.”