SMYRNA, Tenn. – The No. 23 Louisiana Tech bowling team wrapped up its final regular-season tournament of the 2018-19 season over the weekend, placing 10^th among 29 teams at the 2019 Music City Classic, hosted by Vanderbilt.
 
"This was the biggest tournament of the year for us," head coach Matt Nantais remarked. "It was also one of the strongest fields we see all year. I think the work we've put in the past couple weeks in practice showed this weekend, as we filled a lot frames and converted spares. We had a couple of really close matches that could've gone either way and unfortunately for us, they didn't. Finishing 10^th in this field is a real accomplishment for our team. I believe we finished ahead of seven or eight teams ranked higher than us. We will have a very short week to prepare for the conference championship in Dallas on Friday."
 
The Lady Techsters got off to a solid start in Friday's baker match format, posting a 4-1 record, and ended the day in 12^th place in total pinfall. Tech posted wins over three ranked teams in No. 20 LIU-Brooklyn (1,028-967), No. 18 Sacred Heart (1,047-968) and No. 17 Adelphi (965-847) in addition to a win over St. Francis College – Brooklyn (1,003-849).
 
In Saturday's traditional team format, Tech finished with a 2-2 overall record. The Techsters earned wins over North Central College (Ill.) (948-832) and Prairie View A&M (1,089-994). Tech fell to No. 1 McKendree (1,076-933) and dropped a nail-biter to No. 6 Stephen F. Austin (1,015-1,000).
 
Among 172 total individual competitors in the traditional format, Tech saw four finish among the top 100 – Kaitlyn Eder, 27^th – 206.00, Kendall Hickman, 56^th - 194.20, Ashley Channell, 84^th – 184.80, Lindsay Manning, 85^th- 184.80.
 
Tech entered Sunday's bracket play as the No. 12 overall seed, with a chance to finish as high as ninth. The Techsters flew out of the gates, staking a 4-1 win over No. 9 St. Francis (PA). Tech and St. Francis split the first two games (186-179, Tech) and (192-162, St. Francis) before the Techsters rattled off wins in each of the next three games (189-164, 157-149, 226-205).
 
Then, Tech in similar fashion, dispatched of No. 24 Youngstown State, again splitting the first two games (216-203, YSU) and (226-176, Tech) before streaking to another 4-1 triumph (213-157, 178-168, 179-147).
 
In the ninth-place game, the Techsters fell just short to No. 16 Central Missouri, four games to one, but finished the highly-competitive tournament among the top 10.
 
The Techsters return to action, opening up postseason play next weekend at the Southland Conference Championship in Dallas, Texas.
 
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