HARAHAN, La. – The No. 6 Louisiana Tech women's bowling team competed to the last pin, but ultimately fell to Vanderbilt in the championship match at the Southland Bowling League Tournament on Sunday. LA Tech finished the tournament as the runner-up.
 
"This was a long weekend," head coach Matt Nantais said. "We bowled more matches than any other team this weekend. Even though we came up a little bit short, we proved to everybody that we can compete at the highest level. This team did not give up all weekend. They supported each other and fought to the very end. I couldn't be more proud of our performances this weekend. This also prepared us if we make it to the national championships."
 
Sophomores Allie Leiendecker and Danielle Jedlicki were named All-Tournament following their strong performances at the SBL Championships. In the traditional matches of the tournament, Leiendecker had a 223.17 pin average while Jedlicki averaged a 200.67.
 
The second-seeded Lady Techsters started the day off by taking on No. 6 seed Sam Houston. The Lady Techsters won the traditional match, 1,006-974. Leiendecker led Tech in the traditional game after registering 246 total pins. Sam Houston then won the Baker contest by 31 pins, 1,099-1,068, to force a best-of-seven Baker series.
 
LA Tech won the first of the best-of-seven games, 234-221. Sam Houston followed suit with a 237-214 win in the second. The Lady Techsters won the next two contests, 235-204 and 218-209. The 'Kats then won two of their own, 252-222 and 195-189. Tech came back to win the seventh game, 174-168, to secure a spot in the championship matchup against the undefeated No. 3 seed Vanderbilt.
 
Vanderbilt won the traditional match, 1,038-992, and took a two-pin lead after winning the first Baker game, 170-168. Tech won the second Baker contest, 249-213, to take the 34-pin lead. The Commodores won the third game, 196-189, but LA Tech still held the lead with 27 pins. Louisiana Tech won both of the last two Bakers by four pins each, 240-236 and 226-222, to win the Baker series, 1,072-1037, and force a best-of-seven contest.
 
Louisiana Tech jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series as the Lady Techsters won the first three games, 233-216, 224-160 and 213-200. Vanderbilt came back to win the fourth Baker game, 249-165. The teams then tied at 205-205 in the fifth to force a sixth game. LA Tech closed out the series with an eight-bagger in the sixth game for the 259-211 win. With the game six victory, Louisiana Tech won the best-of-seven series, 4.5-1.5, to win the first match against Vanderbilt, 2-1.
 
The match marked Vanderbilt's first loss in the double-elimination tournament, so the teams squared off in another best-of-seven series to determine the SBL Tournament champion. Vanderbilt won the first game, 230-187. The second game was decided by a single pin as Louisiana Tech tied it up at 1-1 with a 196-195 victory. The Commodores won each of the next two games, 236-193 and 189-181, to take a 3-1 lead. Tech would make it a 3-2 contest after a 191-172 victory in game five. However, Vanderbilt would close out the sixth game with a 215-149 win to secure the tournament title and the automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA Bowling Championship.
 
Selections for the 2021 National Collegiate Women's Bowling Championship will be announced on Wednesday, March 31, via web stream at 3 p.m. on NCAA.com. The 2021 championship will be hosted April 7-10 at the AMF Pro Bowl Lanes in North Kansas City, Mo.
 
To watch the Lady Techsters in action throughout the season, subscribe to the LA Tech Bowling channel on YouTube and follow @LATechBowl on both Twitter and Facebook for updates, results and breaking news.