DALLAS, Texas – The No. 9 Louisiana Tech women's bowling team started off strong at the Prairie View A&M Invitational in Dallas, Texas, but ultimately finished seventh at the tournament.
"We started off the weekend on a very high note," head coach
Matt Nantais said. "We came in on Saturday prepared to start where we left off on Friday. There was something wrong with the pattern that was put on the lanes, so it delayed our start by a little over an hour. After that, we never seemed to get into any kind of rhythm for the day. It's not an excuse for our performance because everybody had to deal with the same situation."
Sophomore
Danielle Jedlicki finished in the top-25 individually after finishing the traditional portion of the tournament with a 183.80 average to rank 21st. Senior
Ashley Channell (176.20, 26th), junior
Lindsay Manning (185.75, 35th), senior
Kaitlyn Eder (181.00, 36th), sophomore
Allie Leiendecker (189.33, 45th), sophomore
Katelyn Orisek (163.50, 55th), freshman
Baileigh Snow (213.00, 58th), and junior
Emily Rettig (188.00, 59th) rounded out LA Tech's tournament lineup.
Louisiana Tech had a strong start to the invite after winning its first four Baker matches on Friday before losing its final match of the day. LA Tech started off with a 958-931 victory over No. 3 Arkansas State followed by a 929-917 win over No. 19 Tulane. Tech then defeated No. 4 Nebraska, 992-897, and Prairie View A&M, 1,035-917. LA Tech's only loss of the day came in its final Baker match when Tech lost, 946-903, to No. 7 Stephen F. Austin.
The Lady Techsters struggled on Saturday after finishing 1-4 in their traditional matches. Louisiana Tech had back-to-back losses to No. 1 McKendree, losing 947-932 in the first match and 996-822 in the second match. LA Tech then lost, 1,002-977, to No. 10 Youngstown State. Tech's lone victory came in its fourth match when the Lady Techsters defeated Texas Southern, 887-853. Louisiana Tech ended the day with a 938-900 loss to No. 5 Sam Houston State to enter Sunday's bracket as the sixth seed.
LA Tech took on Nebraska in the first round of the Sunday championship bracket, losing 4-2 (138-196, 145-206, 210-193, 181-193, 173-160, 146-176). The Lady Techsters then lost, 4-1 (170-186, 196-193, 151-235, 169-214, 227-237), to Tulane in the second round. Louisiana Tech defeated Stephen F. Austin in the final match of the day, 4-1 (179-160, 184-181, 205-202, 154-224, 195-178), to secure a seventh place team finish.
"Today, we came in and started off flat and dropped our first two matches," Nantais said. "We seem to have had issues beating Stephen F. Austin, the defending national champions, when the lanes break down and we are hooking a lot. However, today we overcame that hurdle. We learned about some of the flaws we have over the weekend that we will be working on before our next event in two weeks."
No. 1 McKendree won the tournament followed by No. 3 Arkansas State at second place. No. 4 Nebraska, No. 5 Sam Houston State and No. 10 Youngstown State rounded out the top five. No. 19 Tulane placed sixth, followed by Tech at seventh, No. 7 Stephen F. Austin at eighth, Prairie View A&M at ninth and Texas Southern at 10th.
The Lady Techsters will compete in just one event during the month of February at the Louisiana Tech-hosted Bulldog Classic in Dallas, Texas, from Friday, Feb. 12, to Sunday, Feb. 14.
