April 15, 2006

HOUSTON, TX - The Fairleigh Dickinson University women's bowling team won the 2006 National Championship, defeating Alabama A&M, 4-1, on Saturday afternoon in Houston, TX. The championship will be televised on Sunday, April 16 on ESPN at 3:00 p.m.

The Knights won the first game, 209-179, but Alabama A&M came back to take the second, 184-148. FDU then took control, winning the next three games (172-165, 200-179, 196-165) to stake its' claim to the national title.

Alabama A&M defeated two-time defending champion Nebraska twice in the double-elimination tournament to reach the final.

Lisa Friscioni and Kristina Szalay were both named to the All-Tournament Team, with Friscioni earning Most Outstanding Player honors.

To reach the finals, the second-seeded Knights defeated #7 Bethune-Cookman, 4-2, in the first round and then defeated sixth-ranked Vanderbilt, 4-3, to advance. Teams competed against each other in a best-of-seven Baker Game match.

All teams were chosen via an at-large bid and had to first compete in a qualifying round to determine each team's seed, based on total pin fall. In the qualifying round, each team bowled four traditional team games and four best-of-five-game Baker Game matches. The fourth Baker game served as the position round, with the pin fall from the position round serving as the tie-breaker.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln took top seeding (7773) and the Knights took second (7568). Central Missouri State University was seeded third (7477), University of Maryland-Eastern Shore took the fourth slot (7330) and Alabama A&M rounded out the top five with a qualifying total of 7304.

Competition started off with 14 games and the Knights had two bowlers in the top-five individually. Friscioni led all competitors, sitting in first with a total of 877 (219 average). Rebecca Ketcham ranked fourth with a total of 806 (201 average). Kristina Szalay was 16th.

"The television format is different," said Head Coach Mike LoPresti. "My biggest concern was that a big part of our strategy is to build momentum. You have to stop due to the television breaks, so it is harder to build that momentum. But once we won game three it was smooth smailing. We bowled very well in the last two games."

"Lisa was well-deserving of the honor, she by far turned in the most clutch performance of her career. Every time we needed a strike in a 10-frame, she got it. She saved her best performance for last and this is a great way for her to end her career. To she how she has grown in four years into arguably the best player in the country right now is quite remarkable."

"Anybody who has ever played or coached a college sport dreams about winning a national championship," said LoPresti. "Today, our dream came true."

"You can't even put it into words," said Friscioni. "When we started, our one goal was to win it all. This has been such a great year and everything just clicked. We all had the same goal and the same mindset and I couldn't have picked a better group of people to do this with."

The Knights have reached the NCAA Tournament each year of its' existence, placing fourth in the inaugural year of 2003-04 and taking third place last year.