ARLINGTON, Texas (1/28/17) – The Arkansas State women's bowling team rose to first place with a total pinfall of 9,953 after a strong performance Saturday in the second day of the Prairie View A&M Invitational at the International Research and Training Center in Arlington, Texas.

A-State (45-15) began the day with a solid 966-816 win over No. 22 North Carolina A&T with Jordan Richard (217) and Nicole Mikaelian (210) posting high scores for the Red Wolves. Arkansas State dropped consecutive contests to No. 3 Nebraska (982-955) and No. 6 Vanderbilt (1,021-902) to fall to 1-2 on the day. Jordan Richard led the team with a 247 and 209, respectively, in each match, while Haley Richard bowled an even 200 in the match versus the Commodores.

However, the Red Wolves responded to the two setbacks with its two best scores of the day in a 1,145-1,015 win over No. 10 Maryland Eastern Shore and 1,027-943 triumph against Jackson State. All five players rolled scores of 200+ in the win over the Hawks with Jordan Richard (255) and Haley Richard (245) leading the way. Julia Huren posted a 237 in her first match of the day, with Samantha Wallace and Jadee Scott-Jones both bowling scores of204. Scott-Jones followed with an astounding 263 in the win over the Lady Tigers, while Wallace added a score of 211.

“We shot big in the last two matches to take the lead,” A-State head coach Justin Kostick said. “It was one of those days where it took a little while to get going. The lanes are really difficult and it's tricky pair to pair. We need to hit some good pairs tomorrow and clean up all of our spares.”

The Red Wolves' 9,953 leads the field with Nebraska's 9,930 in hot pursuit. McKendree is third with a total pinfall of 9,879 with Vanderbilt (9,872) and Sam Houston State (9,780) rounding out the top five.

Jordan Richard currently leads the individual standings with a total pinfall of 1,100, which comes out to a 220 per game average. Haley Richard is 11th with 1,015 pins with Scott-Jones in 14th with a total pinfall of 1,010.

Sunday's action gets underway at 8:25 a.m. with one round of traditional team play before two best-of-seven Baker matches in the championship bracket. Fans can watch a pair of featured lanes on BowlTV, which is Bowl.com's YouTube channel, for the two best-of-seven Baker matches. The final team game tomorrow morning will not be streamed on BowlTV.