ERIE, Pa. – The No. 1 seeded and top-ranked McKendree University women's bowling team punched its ticket to the 2022 National Collegiate Women's Bowling Championships here Saturday evening by posting a 4-2 over 11th-ranked Mount St. Mary's in the if necessary best-of-7 Baker match of the Erie Regional held at Rolling Meadow Lanes.
 
With the win, the Bearcats advance to Columbus, Ohio, next weekend for a chance to win a National Championship as McKendree will join fourth-ranked Vanderbilt (Lansing Regional winner), 13th-ranked Fairleigh Dickinson (Rochester Regional winner) and eighth-ranked Stephen F. Austin (Arlington Regional winner) at Wayne Webb's Columbus Bowl, which is hosting this year's NCAA Women's Bowling Championship finals.
 
"Today was a good day. We definitely faced some adversity and I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. I think it would be naïve for us to think we could march into the Final Four and sweep everything so facing some adversity is what we needed," McKendree women's bowling head coach Shannon O'Keefe said following her team's win.   
 
McKendree will open the National Championship finals with a match on Friday, April 15 at 9 a.m. ET against Stephen F. Austin, who defeated Louisiana Tech, 2-0, in the championship mega-match final of the Arlington, Texas, Regional. The other match on Friday features Vanderbilt against Fairleigh Dickinson.
 
The Bearcats needed to play the if necessary match of the double elimination tournament after falling 2-0 to Mount St. Mary's in the mega-match of the championship final.
 
"The lanes were really, really hard today. They were not definitely anywhere similar to how they were yesterday and at one point, we needed to shift the girl's mindset. We needed to them to just grind and once we had that conversation with them, we won the next three games to wrap up the win, O'Keefe added. "We try to preach and teach the girls to embrace the struggle, because you're going to learn a lot from it. We definitely have some work for us the next couple of days."
 
In the best-of-7 Baker game final, MSM opened by winning 170-163 in the first game, before evening the match at 1-1 following a 180-145 win in the second game.
 
MSM would retake the lead following a 190-175 win in the third game, before the Bearcats evened the match up again following a 201-171 win in the fourth game.
 
Through the first four matches, all the winning teams bowled on Lane 10, but McKendree finally figured out Lane 9 in the fifth game as they posted a 189-179 victory to take a 3-2 lead in the match.
 
Leading 3-2 in the match, the Bearcats secured their trip to Columbus thanks to an impressive 208-165 win in the sixth game.
 
Meanwhile, in Saturday's championship mega-match, Mount St. Mary's, who earned a spot in the championship final following a 2-1 mega-match win in Saturday's first match of the day, picked up a 915-886 win to earn the point and take a 1-0 lead in the match. Leading the way for the Bearcats in the traditional game was junior Kayla Smith (Salem, Ill./Salem), who recorded a 215 that included seven strikes. Along with Smith, junior Maranda Pattison (Redwood Valley, Calif./Ukiah Independent) finished with a 186 and sophomore Isabel Allen (Tamworth, England/Polesworth High) had a 178.
 
Trailing 1-0 in the match, the Bearcats turned their attention to the five-game Baker total pinfall portion of the mega-match. In the Baker total pinfall, Mount St. Mary's would win by 35 pins as they posted a 1,027-992 win.
 
MSM opened the Baker games with a 224-182 win in the first game and then posted a 236-180 in the second game to push its pinfall lead to 98 pins. The Bearcats came back to win the third game 215-194 thanks to senior Hope Gramly (Prosper, Texas/Prosper) rolling three straight strikes in the 10th frame.
 
The Mountaineers would win by 26 pins (198-172) in the fourth game to push its total pinfall to 103 heading into the fifth and final game. The Bearcats would win the fifth game by 68 pins, 243-175 to cut MSM's final margin to 35 pins. Much like the third game, Gramly recorded three straight strikes in the 10th frame of the fifth game.
 
2022 National Collegiate Women's Bowling Championship - Erie Regional
McKendree vs. Mount St. Mary's (Championship Final)
Traditional Game
Mount St. Mary's 915, McKendree 886
Kayla Smith - 215
Maranda Pattison - 185
Isabel Allen - 178
Rebecca Hagerman - 164
Hope Gramly - 144

Baker 5-Game Total Pinfall
Game 1: Mount St. Mary's 224, McKendree 182
Game 2: Mount St. Mary's 236, McKendree 180
Game 3: McKendree 215, Mount St. Mary's 194
Game 4: Mount St. Mary's 198, McKendree 172
Game 5: McKendree 243, Mount St. Mary's 175
Totals: Mount St. Mary's 1,027-McKendree 992 (-35)

Best-of-7 Baker Games
Game 1: Mount St. Mary's 170, McKendree 163
Game 2: McKendree 180, Mount St. Mary's 145
Game 3: Mount St. Mary's 190, McKendree 175
Game 4: McKendree 201, Mount St. Mary's 171
Game 5: McKendree 189, Mount St. Mary's 179
Game 6: McKendree 208, Mount St. Mary's 165
Totals: McKendree 4, Mount St. Mary's 2

Here are the complete results from the Erie, Pa., Regional:
Friday, April 8
Match 1 - #1 McKendree 2 def. Bowie State 0 (Lanes 5-6)
Match 2 – Mount St. Mary's 2 def. Medaille 1 (Lanes 21-22)
Match 3 – #1 McKendree 2, def. Mount St. Mary's 0 (Lanes 19-20)
Match 4 – Medaille 2 def. Bowie State 0 (Lanes 7-8) - Bowie State eliminated
Saturday, April 9
Match 5 – Mount St. Mary's 2 def. Medaille 1, 9 a.m. ET (Lanes 9-10) - Medaille eliminated
Match 6 (Regional Final) –Mount St. Mary's 2, def. #1 McKendree 0 (Lanes 7-8)
Match 7 (Best of 7 Final) – #1 McKendree 4, def. Mount St. Mary's 2 (Lanes 9-10)