JACKSON, Miss. – The No. 17 Louisiana Tech bowling team rallied back from a two-games to one deficit in Sunday's championship match, and defeated Jackson State, 4-2, clinching the JSU Sonic Boom Invitational Title – Tech's second first-place finish of the 2018-19 season.
"This weekend we threw the ball really well," head coach
Matt Nantais remarked. "We still need to figure out what is different for us from Friday to Saturday. We seem to struggle with making shots and filling spares. We are really strong on Sundays this year, and are 7-2 overall this year. Overall, I am very pleased with where we are as a team this early in the season. We have one more event before wrapping up the first half of our season. I'm looking forward to see us continue to make progress."
The Lady Techsters opened the weekend strong, posting a combined 10-0 record over the course of Friday's backer matches and Saturday's traditional matches.
After the first round of baker matches, Tech sat in first place among the eight teams competing, averaging 195.4. The Techsters were the only team with an undefeated record after Friday's action, and registered three 1,000+ pin matches, while the rest of the field combined for one 1,000+ pin contest.
The Techsters came back on Saturday and posted yet another undefeated mark, this time posting a 5-0 record in the team-match format. Tech earned wins over Grambling (997-659 & 891-608), Alabama State (959-884), Alabama A&M (911-815) and Southern (1000-881).
Heading into Sunday's action as the no. 1 overall seed, Tech faced off against Jackson State in the first round of the championship bracket play. The Techsters rolled three 200+ games, but Jackson State put together four 200+ games and took a first-round 4-1 (210-154, 198-221, 204-202, 231-227, 223-188) win over Tech. However, Tech showed its resiliency as a team and bounced back nicely, taking the next match 4-0 (190-183, 234-148, 200-178, 191-170) over Texas Southern and advancing to the championship in a rematch with Jackson State.
In the championship match, Tech began things with a 212-192 win in game one. However, Jackson State responded, taking the next two games, 218-183 and 231-201, respectively, taking a 2-1 lead in the match. The Techsters kept their cool and rattled off three straight victories (211-199, 208-133, 225-205) to clinch the match, 4-2, claiming the championship crown.
For their performances in the team-match format, sophomores
Kaitlyn Eder and
Ashley Channell earned all-tournament recognition. (Eder's first of 2018-19 and Channell's second). Eder finished fourth among all individuals, averaging 203.20, while Channell finished fifth, averaging 198.20. Freshman
Lindsay Manning finished just outside the top-10 at 11
th with an average of 190.00, while senior
Kendall Hickman (33
rd, 180.00), freshman
Emily Rettig (39
th, 183.67) and freshman
Kalia Patterson (40
th, 176.67) posted respectable individual efforts throughout the weekend.
Tech will return to action next weekend, competing in the Hornets Classic, hosted by Alabama State. Be sure to subscribe to the LA Tech Bowling Channel on YouTube and follow @LATechBowl on social media to keep up and watch the Lady Techsters in action this season.
