HAMILTON, N.J. – The 17th-ranked Fairleigh Dickinson women's bowling team scored five straight games with over 1,000 pins and vaulted into fourth place at the Monmouth Hawk Flight Invite after day two of competition on Saturday.
 
The Knights (56-36) won three of their five matches with their high scores, dropping their two matches against top-five ranked teams while cruising to wins over Caldwell, Mercyhurst and New Jersey City. FDU totaled 5,290 pins in their five traditional matches, third-most among the 12 teams in the field, and stand in fourth place with a grand total of 10, 471 pins and a 209.4 pins per game average.
 
FDU trails only first-place Duquesne, who is the Knights' opponent in their last traditional match on Sunday, and also no. 2 Sam Houston State and no. 4 Vanderbilt, who were the two teams FDU lost to on Saturday.

Freshman Cameron Spring led the Knights with a 220.4 pins per game individual average, good for seventh in the individual standings. Junior Amanda Chrzanowski (212.8) and senior Samantha Hart (208.6) also placed inside the top-16 in the individual standings, while junior Jenna Henderson (210.3) led all bowlers who competed in four of five matches in game average. Sophomore Lanasia Neal averaged 221 pins per game in three complete games, and senior Brianna MacLeod also averaged 200 pins in her two games she played. 

"With the scoring pace at a level we haven't seen all year, we definitely held our own, consistently playing above a 1050 team total for most of the day, which moved us into the top four in the standings," head coach Mike LoPresti said. "We had five players average over 200. Cam Spring, who averaged 220.4 for five games, led us, and Lanasia did an amazing job today. She came off the bench and averaged 221.0 for three games. Amanda posted a 212.8 average for five games, Jenna averaged 210.3 for four games, and Sammy Hart chipped in with a 208.6 average for five games, too. We're going to need a lot more of this type of a balanced attack tomorrow, beginning with our first match of the day versus tournament leader Duquesne."
 
FDU played the top-ranked team in the tournament to start the day, falling to no. 2 Sam Houston State 1079-1008. Spring led the Knights with a game score of 226, while MacLeod (222) and Chrzanowski (207) also bowled over 200 in their respective games. Hart contributed a 179, while junior Aimee Sherman and Henderson combined to total 174. The Bearkats had four of their five pinsetters tally game scores of 213 or above.
 
The Knights then defeated Caldwell in their next match, 1085-891, with four of five FDU bowlers scoring over 200 games. Chrzanowski led the Knights with a score of 238, while Hart (224), Henderson (223) and Spring (222) all supplemented the FDU score with high-scoring games. MacLeod and Neal combined for a 178 to round out the FDU lineup.
 
All five FDU pinsetters then gained at least 200 pins in their respective games, but the Knights fell to fourth-ranked Vanderbilt, 1221-1052. Henderson (216), Hart (215) and Neal (214) all finished within two pins of each other, while Chrzanowski and Spring added to the Knights' totals with games of 205 and 202, respectively.
 
Led by the efforts of Neal and Hart with each scoring games of 226, the Knights then bounced back with a win over Mercyhurst, 1060-975. Spring also totaled a score of 215 as the leadoff, with Chrzanowski (197) and Henderson (196) each coming close to eclipsing the 200-pin mark in the match.
 
FDU then wrapped up its day with a big win over New Jersey City, 1085-738. Spring saved her best score for last with a high of 237, while Neal also finished on a strong note with a 223. Chrzanowski contributed a 217 to the FDU scorecard, while both Henderson (206) and Hart (202) ended their days with game scores above 200.
 
The Knights face no. 10 Duquesne in their final traditional team qualifying match of the tournament Sunday at 8:30 a.m., and if they hold their fourth-place spot, the Knights will be one of four teams vying for the tournament title in the two-round Baker best four-of-seven playoff bracket that starts at 10 a.m.