DALLAS, Texas (3/24/18) – The Arkansas State women's bowling team navigated its way through three matches in the elimination bracket Saturday at USA Bowl in Dallas, Texas, to earn a spot in the Southland Bowling League Tournament final.
Top-seeded A-State (86-34) won a pair of hard fought 2-1 matches against No. 7 Louisiana Tech and No. 8 Monmouth to set up a contest with No. 2 Vanderbilt for the right to bowl in Sunday's championship against fourth-seeded Stephen F. Austin. The team won the traditional match 1,025-952 with Jordan Richard rolling a fantastic 259. The Red Wolves then defeated the Commodores 968-936 in a five-game Baker match to eliminate Vandy and clinch a spot in the title match.
“I am proud of the way we battled,” A-State head women's bowling coach Justin Kostick said. “Losing early in this tournament makes it difficult because with the new format matches can last for three and a half hours. For us to have the energy and focus to win all three matches today shows how great of a team we have.”
Arkansas State faced the Lady Techsters first Saturday morning and bowled a rough 857 to Louisiana Tech's 895 in the traditional match to fall behind 1-0. However, the team recovered with a great five-game Baker match win of 1,078-892 to set up a 4-0 win in the best-of-seven Baker match to eliminate Louisiana Tech.
A-State then squared off against Monmouth again after defeating the Hawks 2-1 yesterday in the first round. Once again, the Red Wolves were not in their sharpest form in the traditional match with a 982-879 loss despite a 223 from Haley Richard. The team then flipped the script again in the five-game Baker match with a definitive 1,101-947 win that included a 284 in game five. The squad jumped ahead 3-0 in the best-of-seven Baker match before winning 4-1 to advance to play Vandy.
This is the fourth straight year Arkansas State has advanced to the tournament title match with its lone win coming in the 2016 version. The Ladyjacks defeated A-State 2-0 Friday before defeating Vanderbilt Saturday to clinch a spot in the championship.
Tomorrow's championship match gets underway at 9 a.m. with an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line. The championship match will be streamed on InsideBowling.com.
Fans can keep up with the Arkansas State women's bowling team by following the squad on Twitter (@AStateBowling) and by liking the Arkansas State Women's Bowling page on Facebook.
