March 18, 2018 SMYRNA, Tenn. - The No. 20 Louisiana Tech women's bowling team posted its fifth top-10 finish of the 2017-18 season, and claimed a 10th-place finish out of 32 teams at this weekend's Music City Classic hosted by Vanderbilt.
"To finish 10th at this event with 32 teams participating shows the work put in by this team," head coach Matt Nantais said. "Everyone stepped up at one time or another to help us throughout this weekend. This was a great momentum builder for us going into the conference championship next week."
Tech was consistently among the top-10 throughout the weekend, sitting in 10th position after Friday's action, and moving up to ninth on Saturday. Entering bracket play on Sunday, the Lady Techsters averaged 188.6 pins per game, the ninth highest mark among all competition.
The squad finished the weekend with one of its best scoring marks of the season, at 191.0 (12,798 total pins across 67 games).
Sunday's bracket play began with a tough matchup against No. 12 Sacred Heart. In the best-of-seven matchup, Tech owned a 2-1 edge after dropping game one (205-171) and snagging games two and three (201-169 and 192-145, respectively). However Sacred Heart put together a rally and took the next three games, including a narrow 217-212 game six win to take the first-round matchup.
The Lady Techsters were not deterred, however, and took care of No. 7 Delaware State four games to one (158-213, 217-167, 191-184, 279-190, 193-181). In game four, Tech rolled a 279 as a team, one of its best games in school history.
"This weekend was the highest average we have posted at an event all year," Nantais added. "Today we also had a 279 game, where we had 11 out of 12 possible strikes in the game. I believe it is the highest baker game in program history."
With momentum on its side after the win over a top-10 nationally-ranked program, Tech advanced to the ninth-place game taking on Monmouth. The Hawks came out of the gates hot, taking the first three games (230-180, 224-204 and 215-178), but Tech stayed resilient and took the next two games (189-183 and 265-186). Monmouth would escape with a game six win, taking ninth place.
Individually, the Techsters were led by senior Sarah McComic, who finished with a 197.00 weekend average for the 27th-highest mark out of 207 total competitors. Junior Kendall Hickman also wrapped up a strong tournament, finishing with the 32nd - highest average of 195.80. Freshman Kaitlyn Eder (50th, 189.40), senior Kelsey Calzaretta (60th, 183.40) and freshman Ashley Channell (82nd, 177.60) all posted respectable averages in the total team effort.
The top-10 finish marks the fifth for Tech this season, who has consistently been ranked among the top-20 teams in the nation.
With its final tune-up under its belt, Tech will head to Dallas, Texas, next weekend for the Southland Bowling League Championship.
Stay plugged into LATechSports.com and @LATechBOWL on Twitter and Facebook for stats and streaming information for next weekend's contest.
