GREEN BAY, Wisc. – McKendree Women's bowling fought through a host of competition to earn a spot in the national title game at the Ashwaubenon Bowling Alley this past weekend.
Competition started on Thursday with 24 baker games to decide the seeding for bracket play later that day. After the first 12 game block, McKendree was sitting in 14th with a total pinfall of 2092. The second block the team picked up the scoring with four games over 200 to have a total pinfall of 4255 earning a 14th seed going into bracket play.
This placed them with a first round match up against #3 seed Mount Mercy. After being down early, the Bearcats fought back to game seven where they pulled out the win to move on to the next round. This put them in a match with #11 seed Tulane who was coming off an upset victory of their own against #6 seed Lindenwood. McKendree took advantage of their momentum and handled the Green Wave with a 4-1 victory.
Moving onto Friday, they saw a familiar foe on the other side of the fifth-round match up. #10 seed Newman also battled their way to this round, knocking off #7 seed Cumberland and #2 seed Louisiana Tech. This was a very close game against their GLVC counterpart, as Newman was up 3-1 at one point. The Bearcats once again showed their fight and came back to win the match to pull themselves closer to a spot on the show. With a spot in the national championship game on the line, McKendree showed up and overpowered the #2 seed Louisiana Tech 4-1 to play on Saturday.
McKendree would go on to face the #1 seed Jacksonville State who handled their side of the bracket to earn their spot in the title match. The Gamecocks would take the first of what was a best-of-five baker match which was very close was the Bearcats would only fall by a couple of pins. After that Jacksonville State would close out the next two games to win the match.
Jaycie Smith was selected to the second-team All-Tournament team for her efforts at the tournament.
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