Arlington, Texas – The No. 7 Louisiana Tech women's bowling team started and finished the weekend strong to earn fifth place at the Prairie View A&M Invitational in Arlington, Texas.
LA Tech completed the weekend 8-5 competing against the nation's top teams. The field included nine other top 20 ranked NCAA programs and six inside the top 10.
The Techsters got off to a blistering start Friday in their five Baker matches posting a 4-1 record including wins over No. 13 Tulane (1,009-873), No. 4 North Carolina A&T (1,119-1,082), No. 8 Youngstown State (1,104-1,033), and No. 3 ranked Nebraska (1,049-990) while falling to No. 15 Fairleigh Dickinson (998-1,040) to finish the day in the tournament's top spot with a total pin fall of 5,269.
Tech opened Saturday's traditional match slate falling to No. 19 Sacred Heart (914-1025) before rebounding against No. 2 McKendree (940-924). Top ranked Sam Houston then outlasted LA Tech (1,045-1,078), but the Techsters rebounded yet again to take down host Prairie View A&M (961-868).
Tech finished their Saturday 2-3 after dropping the final match against No. 6 Arkansas State (973-826).
In a final qualifying match Sunday morning Tech fell to No. 5 Vanderbilt (1,056-1,108) to find themselves sitting at sixth in the overall team standings just 31 pins out of the championship bracket with a total pinfall of 11,011.
That set up a rematch against Fairleigh Dickinson in a best-of-seven Baker match. After falling down 2-1 in the first three games (174-214, 230-189, 177-179), Tech rebounded to win the next two (244-126, 199-191) to take the 3-2 lead.
After FDU tied the series with a game six win (192-233) forcing a decisive seventh game, Tech was able to avenge Friday's loss with a 185-163 clinching victory.
Tech then advanced to face-off against North Carolina A&T with a top five finish on the line. After dropping the first game (201-244), Tech rallied off four straight wins (204-173, 179-170, 222-183, 226-196) to take home the Invitational's fifth-place finish winning the series 4-1.
NOTABLES
- Louisiana Tech is now 44-7 in qualifying matches this season.
- Tech posted five wins over top five ranked teams this weekend.
- Lindsay Manning finished just outside the individual top 10 overall (No. 11) with a 213.00 average (1,278 pins in six games).
- Allie Leiendecker and Patricia Rosales also broke the thousand pin mark with 1,147 and 1,199, respectively.
- Tech finished their 13 matches with an average game of 200.7, the fifth highest team average of the tournament out of the 12.
QUOTABLES
Head Coach Matt Nantais…
"We knew this event this would be a test for us. Overall, we had a great weekend. To go 8-5 and finish fifth in this field is an accomplishment. We had some struggles on Saturday and didn't bowl our best but we had people step up and showed that we have some depth to our team.
Baileigh Snow and
Tara Spridco stepped up and gave us a boost during the day. Traditionally we've struggled winning on Sunday and to finish the day strong with a winning record shows we have a lot of grit and fight to us. I'm very proud of our team."
UP NEXT
Louisiana Tech will return to action in Dallas, Texas for the Lady Techsters Classic Feb. 11-13.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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