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Feb. 16, 2009
PERRY HALL, Md. - All five of the nation's top teams rolled into the Baltimore area this past weekend and all five competed well at the Morgan State Invitational. So well, in fact, that they finished, one through five, in the exact order they are ranked in the current National Tenpins Coaches Association (NTCA) poll. That means the fourth ranked Lady Hawks of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) were fourth. They sported an 8-2 mark and ran their season total up to 90-28. The Hawks opened up the first day in traditional team games and faced four ranked teams, picking up wins across the board and going 5-0 to open the event. It was on day two they ran into some resistance, falling in Baker games to top-ranked Vanderbilt and no. 3 Fairleigh Dickinson before sweeping the other three teams to finish 8-2. Maria Rodriguez (Ibague Tolima, Colombia) was the star individually for UMES as she posted a pin fall of 1,020 over five games and averaged a 204. Only two bowlers were better than her on the day, both from no. 2 Nebraska. She was just nine pins behind second place Erin McCarthy and 39 behind top finisher Cassie Leuthold. Still her third place finish earned her All-Tournament honors as she posted three games of 200 or better. The Hawks opened with a 925-904 win over #14 Elmhurst and followed it with a 919-782 topping of no. 19 St. Francis College. Jamie Culbreth (Hochspeyer, Germany) posted the high game of the event for UMES with a 245 against Elmhurst and followed it with a 213 over SFC. Rodriguez then picked up the 200 games rolling a 216 in a win over Bowie State (992-760), a 200 vs. no. 9 Central Missouri (906-859) and a 210 vs. #20 Fayetteville State 851-678. Katherine Brown (Level Green, Pa.) tallied a 235 vs. Bowie State and Martha Perez (Bogota, Colombia) posted a 201 against the Jennies of Central Missouri.
On day two UMES opened with their 785-850 Baker loss to the Commodores of Vanderbilt but rebounded quickly to top St. Peter's 708-692. They then fell to no. 3 Fairleigh Dickinson 782-812 before defeating Lincoln (768-554) and North Carolina Central (823-653). UMES has one more tournament before championship play starts with the ECAC, MEAC and NCAA tiles at stake. They travel to the Holiday Classic in Bessemer, Ala. February 28 through March 1, 2009. |
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