NORFOLK, Va. – When the spring sports season was shut down, it marked the end of a decade of Norfolk State athletics. From the fall of 2010 to the spring of 2020, it was a 10-year stretch that saw countless highlights across NSU's 15 total sports. Many of those programs' greatest achievements – since NSU made the jump to NCAA Division I in 1997 – came during this decade.
 
Over the course of the next several weeks, we are going to continue spotlighting those storylines right here on NSUSpartans.com. Every week, we'll choose a different sport(s) and take you down memory lane before we get set to start a new decade of excellence. In addition, head over to our Twitter page (@NSUSpartans) where fans will have the opportunity to vote for what they think is the greatest highlight per sport. At the end, they will also be able to vote for the greatest overall highlight in NSU athletics during the past 10 years.
 
Week 7 of our series brings us to bowling, another program that racked up the success. We've narrowed it down to five storylines from the past decade that we'll focus on, in no particular order.
 
A.) The plaques piled up for Spartan bowling in the early part of the decade, and it was a specific pair that the program accumulated on an annual basis. For four straight seasons, the Spartans won the MEAC Southern Division title. The first came in 2010-11, when they went 18-6 in the division. They took the crown the next three years after that, including in 2012-13 on the heels of a 21-3 record. Those marked the first official regular season titles ever for NSU bowling, as a title the previous decade was later vacated. The other set of hardware the program brought home? Three straight Coach of the Year awards for Wilhelmenia Harrison. The first came again in 2011, and for the next two years her peers recognized her again for the program's accomplishments.
Read more of NSU winning its fourth straight MEAC Southern Division title.
 
B.) One of those seasons came with more than just a division title. In 2012, the Spartans won their first, and still only, MEAC championship. Behind tournament MVP Thea Aspiras, Norfolk State rebounded from a difficult first day to sweep its way through Saturday's bracket round. Included in three wins that day was a victory over top seed Delaware State. The Spartans then swept Bethune-Cookman on Day 3 in the championship match, 4-0, to earn the title that Sunday afternoon in Greensboro, North Carolina. Aspiras and Lauren Graupmann were each named to the all-tournament team as the program continued a successful year for the athletics department as a whole: MEAC Championship #5 out of 6 that year for NSU Athletics.
Read more about NSU winning the 2012 MEAC title.
 
C.) Speaking of Aspiras, it was no coincidence she earned tournament MVP honors in 2012. After all, she left NSU as the most decorated bowler in program history. She was a four-time first-team All-MEAC honoree and was the 2010-11 MEAC Rookie of the Year. Aspiras was a catalyst for NSU's success during that time and even after she left due to her help in elevating the program. She became NSU's first All-American, earning second-team honors her freshman year and honorable mention as a junior. She was also an all-academic honoree during her time at Norfolk State. Most recently, she was voted to the NSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019, the first Spartan bowler to garner that distinction.
Read more of Aspiras' bio.
 
D.) NSU came close two other times to winning the MEAC title. In 2015 and '16, the Spartans advanced to the MEAC Championship final. Both years, they took down several higher-ranked or higher-seeded teams the day before the final, posting a 6-1 record on those two Saturdays. Seeded sixth both years, NSU fell to Delaware State in the final in 2016, 4-1. The heartbreak was worse in 2015, as the team had built a 3-0 lead over Maryland Eastern Shore in the best-of-seven series. The Hawks, however, stormed back to win the last four games of the series for the 4-3 win. Nevertheless, just being able to advance to the title round those two seasons, the second and third times ever, was an accomplishment in and of itself.
Read more about NSU in the MEAC final: 2015 | 2016
 
E.) The only thing that really did not go the Spartans' way the year they won the MEAC title was that they did not earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Despite falling just short of that mark, they made up for it in a certain way the following year. In 2012-13, NSU earned its way to the USBC Intercollegiate Team Championship, an event that features the top teams in the nation, not just NCAA programs. The Spartans earned their way to the championship after placing fourth at one of the four sectionals earlier in the season. NSU has competed at the sectional meet during various other seasons, but the 2012-13 campaign marked the first time ever the program broke through to the USBC Championship to face the best collegiate bowling teams in the nation.
Read more about NSU advancing to the USBC Championship.
 
Those are just but a few of the highlights from bowling this decade. Be sure to check our Twitter @NSUSpartans to vote for your favorite each and every week. Next week we'll be back with men's basketball.