DALLAS, Texas – No. 5 Louisiana Tech took home the tournament runner-up after pushing Arkansas State to seven games in the Lady Techsters Classic at USA Bowl in Dallas, Texas Sunday afternoon.
 
LA Tech completed the weekend 6-4 in qualifying matches to put themselves in a great spot heading into Sunday's bracket play as the tournament's overall No. 3 seed.  
 
The Techsters got off to another great start during Friday's Baker matches posting a 3-1 record including wins over No. 2 Sam Houston State (966-932), Grambling State (933-679), and No. 15 Tulane (1010-964), while posting a 987 in the bye before falling to No. 8 Stephen F. Austin (1,032-1,041) to finish the day in the tournament's top spot with a total pin fall of 4,928.
 
Tech opened Saturday's traditional match slate with a win over No. 17 LIU (953-822) behind Patricia Rosales' opening round tournament-high of 245. The Techsters then fell to No. 7 Arkansas State (864-941) but rebounded over No. 21 Lincoln Memorial (966-904) with Allie Leiendecker leading the way posting a team-high 214 to remain in the tournament's No. 1 spot.
 
Tech dropped their last two matches of the day to No. 4 Vanderbilt (850-871) and No. 25 Central Missouri (892-916) but finished the day in the third overall position heading into Sunday's final qualifying match against Prairie View A&M who Tech handled (975-825) to secure a spot in the top four and a chance at the tournament title. 
 
Tech got a shot at revenge with SFA in the semifinal match and after taking a 3-1 lead (214-181, 215-181, 242-161, 200-226) in the Baker best-of-seven, Tech exacted that revenge with three straight strikes in the tenth frame to take the series 4-1 with a 189-177 win. 
 
That set up a showdown versus Arkansas State who took care of Sam Houston on the other side of the bracket. In game one, down more than 40 pins, Tech strung together five straight strikes to complete the comeback for a 1-0 lead (208-202).
 
Arkansas State evened the series at 1-1 (215-225) followed by Tech regaining the lead 2-1 after a 247-237 win. It came down to a simple best-of-three series after Arkansas State took game four to knot the championship series at 2-2 (192-219).
 
Tech took game five 226-170 but lost game six by a single pin (214-215) which forced a winner-take-all game seven that Arkansas State claimed 190-234 for the tournament title leaving the Lady Techsters with their third runner-up finish of the season.

NOTABLES

• This is Louisiana Tech's third runner-up finish this season along with the Colonial Lanes Classic and Sonic Boom Invitational.
• Louisiana Tech is now 50-11 in qualifying matches this season.
• Tech went 7-5 overall on the weekend posting five wins over top 25 teams.
• Tech now has six wins over top five-ranked teams in the 2022 portion of the season's schedule. 
• Allie Leiendecker made the all-tournament team finishing as the third overall bowler with a total pinfall of 1,244 for a 207 average. 
• This was Leiendecker's third all-tournament team this season and 14^th of her career.
• Danielle Jedlicki also broke the thousand pin mark with 1,131 and finished as the 21^st overall bowler.
• Tech finished their 13 games (12 matches, 1 bye) with an average game of 193.9, the second highest team average of the tournament out of the 11 programs.

QUOTABLES
Head Coach Matt Nantais…
"This weekend was probably the most challenging pattern that we have bowled on in the last few years. Shot making was at a premium as well as spare shooting. Friday, we did a great job overall in all aspects of the game. Saturday, we did not perform up to our capabilities and I have to figure out what we can do differently to improve it. Two tournaments in a row we have bowled great on Friday and Saturday had subpar performances, but we have had great Sundays the last two events. We came up short this weekend in the championship match but we bowled great. This team does not give up."
 
UP NEXT
Louisiana Tech gets right back at it in Jonesboro, Ark. for the Mid-Winter Invitational at Arkansas State Feb. 18-21. 

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