ROCKAWAY, N.J. – The ninth-ranked Fairleigh Dickinson women's bowling team closed out its first tournament of the season with three wins in the Caldwell University Classic on Sunday.
The Knights first defeated seventh-ranked Maryland-Eastern Shore, 945-864, in the final traditional match of the weekend. Play then shifted to a two-round, best four-of-seven playoff bracket, where the Knights topped no 15 Adelphi, 4-1, before ending the day with a 4-2 victory over no. 24 Kutztown. The two wins garnered the Knights a fifth place finish in the final standings.
"We took big steps toward respectability today," head coach
Mike LoPresti said. "Our team is young, with most of our roster being underclassmen. We understand that rocky performances are going to happen, like the first two days. Going into the season, one of our core goals was to play our best on Sundays. We certainly accomplished that today, winning all three of our matches, including a big one that opened the day against NE region rival UMES."
Sophomore
Aimee Sherman finished with the fourth-best individual score from the six traditional matches in the tournament. She averaged 189.0 pins over all six matches, including rolling a 210 in Sunday's game against UMES.
Junior
Brianna MacLeod also ended in the top 25 among individual bowlers from the traditional rounds, scoring a 172.67 average over six matches to place 24th.
The Knights started the final day with wins in four of five games to defeat seventh-ranked Maryland-Eastern Shore. Sherman along with junior
Samantha Hart, sophomore
Amanda Chrzanowski and freshman
Lanasia Neal all picked up wins for the Knights, with Chrzanowski rolling a team-best score of 223.
FDU then shifted to Baker playoff rounds for the final two matches. Against Adelphi, the Knights took the first three frames, winning 186-168, 203-168 and 185-177. Adelphi took the fourth game, 199-191, to extend the match, but FDU rallied back to win a resounding fifth frame, 212-174, to capture the overall win.
Against Kutztown, the Knights again secured a first-frame win, 182-166, but dropped the next two games. The Knights rolled solid games the rest of the way, earning a 218-178 third-frame win before closing out the match with two more wins, 214-189 and 190-123.
The Knights finished their first tournament of the season with a 9-4 record, defeating four ranked different ranked opponents in the three-day affair.
"As long as we continue to make progress every day, we'll be able to make some noise down the road," LoPresti continued. "Until then, back to work."
FDU competes again next weekend, traveling to Virginia for the Virginia Union Invitational, starting Friday, November 2, and running through Sunday, November 4.
