EGG HARBOR, N.J. – The eighth-ranked Fairleigh Dickinson women's bowling team won three of five matches and sit in third place in the standings after two days of competition at the Monmouth Hawk Flight Invite.
The Knights (74-42) won a close battle with no. 6 UMES to start the day before dropping two matches to the top-two ranked teams in the tournament, no. 2 Vanderbilt and no. 5 Sam Houston State. FDU then ended the day with big wins over LIU Post and Bloomfield to finish round robin play in third place.
FDU averaged 189.3 pins per game across their five traditional matches on Saturday and finished the tournament as one of only three of 18 teams to average more than 190 pins per game in 10 matches (193.0). The Knights enter Sunday's bracket play needing to go 3-0 to win the tournament for the second time in three seasons after finishing third last year.
"We had a difficult time getting started today, but we managed to pull out a close one in match one and played more consistently during matches four and five," head coach
Mike LoPresti said at the end of the day. "The improvement in our scores are a direct result of better execution and higher efficiency."
Junior
Brianna MacLeod led the Knights in traditional team play, averaging 210.2 pins per game across all five matches with a high of 236 in the Knights' win over Bloomfield. Sophomores
Amanda Chrzanowski and
Aimee Sherman also competed in all five matches, while junior
Samantha Hart competed in each of the last three matches.
"For most of the day, Bri MacLeod was stellar from the leadoff spot," LoPresti said. "Her big closing game put her pretty high on the individual standings sheet."
FDU began its Saturday with a nail-biting 916-915 victory over UMES. MacLeod led the Knights with a 205 score out of the leadoff spot, and sophomore
Deborah Epps totaled a 180 as FDU's next highest score. Chrzanowski and Sherman each rolled a 179, and senior
Amy Caruso totaled a 173 in helping the Knights earn just enough pins to defeat the Hawks.
Facing the toughest opponent in the field next, the Knights could not match the Commodores in a 983-901 loss. MacLeod again was the highest-scoring Knight with a 198, while Chrzanowski totaled 192 pins and Sherman repeated her score of 179. Epps and Caruso again competed for the Knights, with Caruso totaling a 171 and Epps scoring a 161.
The Knights also faced a difficult opponent in Sam Houston State and dropped a 951-890 match to the Bearkats. MacLeod (222) and Sherman (205) each rolled games of over 200, and sophomore
Jenna Henderson subbed in for the ninth frame of
Lanasia Neal's game to try to spark a late rally. The Bearkats, however, held off the Knights to earn the match victory.
Three Knights then totaled games of over 200 in the Knights' 1035-823 win over LIU Post. Sherman led the way with a 233, her best score of the day, and both Chrzanowski (213) and Hart (205) also bowled their best individual games of the day. Henderson stayed on as a starter and totaled a 194, while MacLeod put up her lowest game total of the day with a 190.
FDU ended its day with a 990-664 win over Bloomfield, with both Chrzanowski (204) and Sherman (209) joining MacLeod (236) in finishing above 200 in their respective games. Hart also added a 191 to her end her day.
The Knights begin Sunday's Baker best four-of-seven bracket play facing NEC rival and 11th-ranked Saint Francis U. If the Knights win, they take on the loser of Vanderbilt-Sam Houston State for the right to go to the title match, while a loss puts the Knights in position to finish as high as third place.
Check back here at fduknights.com at the end of the day Sunday for full results and a final recap.
