COLUMBUS, Ohio – Facing elimination Saturday morning against No. 3 seeded and fourth-ranked Vanderbilt, the No. 1 ranked and top-seeded McKendree University women's bowling team earned a 2-1 mega-match win here at Wayne Webb's Columbus Bowl over the Commodores to advance to the 2022 National Collegiate Bowling Championship finals match against eighth-ranked Stephen F. Austin at 8 p.m. Eastern on ESPNU.
 
The Bearcats got off to a slow start in Saturday morning's elimination match as Vanderbilt took a 1-0 lead in the mega-match by way of a 983-932 win in the traditional game. In the traditional game, Vanderbilt recorded three more strikes than the Bearcats, 26-23 in the match to secure the match win.
 
"We started off very slow, which was fine, because these girls are resilient and have proven time-and-time again this year that is no quit in them and when things got a little hairy, I just reminded them that you have to take one shot at a time, let go and let God, because he's great and he wants to be with them," McKendree head coach Shannon O'Keefe said following the win.
 
In the traditional game, only two Bearcats managed to roll over 200 as fifth-year senior Britaney Myers (Mechanicsville, NY/Stillwater) led the way with a 202 that included a team-high tying six strikes. Along with Myers, junior All-American Maranda Pattison (Redwood Valley, Calif./Ukiah Independent) was right behind as she recorded a 201 with six strikes as well.
 
McKendree, though, came back to even the mega-match at 1-1 following a 1,092—1,056 total pinfall in the 5-game Baker series to force a decisive best-of-seven Baker match to determine which team advances. In the Baker games, Vandy won the first game, 245-217 to hold a 28-pin lead, but the Bearcats rallied to win the second game, 208-194 to cut the pinfall gap to just 14 pins.
 
Vanderbilt take the third game, 188-187 to push its pinfall total to 15 pins, but the top-ranked Bearcats once again rallied as they posted a 245-217 win in the fourth game to take the pinfall lead at 28 pins and then earned a 235-212 win in the fifth game to win by 36 pins and force the best-of-seven Baker match.
 
The two teams would tie at 235 in the opening game of the best-of-seven Baker set, before the Bearcats would reel off three straight wins (238-216, 244-211, 226-201) to take a 3.5-0.5 lead into the fifth game.
 
In the fifth game, the Commodores would record a 221-189 win to pull within two games at 3.5-1.5 and then they added a 249-195 win in the sixth game to pull within 3.5-2.5 to force a decisive game seven.
 
McKendree would open the decisive seventh game by rolling eight consecutive strikes en route to posting a 263-221 win and advancing to its third National Championship match in program history and first since finishing as national runners-up in 2018. The Bearcats won the 2017 National Championship.
 
"We got off to a really good start in game seven and everything else kind of melted away," O'Keefe added.
 
The Bearcats and the Ladyjacks, who defeated McKendree, 2-1, in Friday's opening mega-match of the Final Four, will meet in a winner-take-all best-of-seven Baker match Saturday evening.