CHESTERFIELD, Mo. – The 11^th-ranked Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters won two of their final three matches to place 7^th in a tightly-contested Columbia 300 Saints Invitational, which was hosted by Maryville University.
 
Allie Leiendecker earned all-tournament honors for the third time this season by placing fourth overall (211.00). Lindsay Manning was hot on Leiendecker's heels with a 201.60 average, which earned 15^th place. Kaitlyn Eder (33^rd – 189.20), Ashley Channell (36^th – 187.00), and Danielle Jedlicki (46^th – 178.00) rounded out Tech's top-five.
 
"Overall, we bowled very well this weekend. Our record and place finish may not show how well we threw the ball, but we have made strides over our last event," said Lady Techster head coach Matt Nantais. "We still have work to do but we have two weeks to plan before our next event."
 
"It's nice that Allie made her third all-tournament team, but that does not overshadow the performances by others on the team. Lindsay Manning also had a great weekend by stepping up and averaging 200," Nantais continued.
 
Tech headed into Sunday's bracket play in eighth place with a chance to finish as high as fifth. Twelfth-ranked Central Missouri defeated the Lady Techsters in the first match, winning 242-191 in a decisive seventh game to take a 4-3 victory.
 
The loss dropped Tech to a match with no. 20 Lincoln Memorial. The Lady Techsters trailed 2-0 after losing the first two matches (208-217, 170-218) but rebounded to win the next three in a row (213-211, 229-190, 196-166). The Lady Railsplitters evened the match at three with a 224-169 victory, but Tech took the decisive final game 216-158 to advance to the 7^th/8^th place match.
 
Tech faced off with Central Missouri for the third time in its final match of the weekend. After going 1-2-1 (205-175, 176-189, 169-169, 155-170) in the first four games, Tech won each of the last three (172-143, 224-200, 202-154) to exact revenge and earn 7^th place.
 
The Lady Techsters were in 6^th place after the Friday's competition. Tech opened the day by defeating Drury 996-966 before dropping its second Baker match to Lewis (954-926). The Lady Techsters bounced back to defeat Spalding (935-828) and blow out Kentucky Wesleyan (979-735) before falling to third-ranked Nebraska (1,066-984) in their final match of the day.
 
Tech initially moved up the leaderboards on Saturday, taking down no. 15 Maryville (981-978) to move up to fifth place. Top-ranked McKendree (969-964)  and no. 12 Central Missouri (1,028 – 1,018) narrowly defeated the Lady Techsters in the following matches, but Tech remained in good position overall. Unfortunately, Tech slipped to 8^th place in the standings when Sam Houston State and Maryville posted high totals in their final two matches of the day to squeak ahead of the Lady Techsters in total pins.
 
Louisiana Tech will return to action Feb. 14-16 when it travels to Arkansas State for the Mid-Winter Invitational. The mid-February competition will be one of Tech's final two NCAA tournaments before the Southland Championships in late March.  
 
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