Nov. 23, 2009
Photo Gallery 
MILLSBORO, Del. - Entering the final day of the Eastern Shore Hawk Classic, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) was in third place. After three more matches the nation's fourth ranked team stayed there, taking the bronze medal in the fifth annual event, posting a 2-1 mark on the day and seeing their own Paula Vilas (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) named Tournament MVP.
In the 20-team bracket format UMES opened up with the fourth seed, no.8 New Jersey City University. The Gothic Knights pushed UMES to seven games in the best 4-of-7 Baker format match. The Hawks were victorious however, taking the match 4-3. They posted games of 220, 223, 202 and 201 to win. Game seven saw them post a 201-176 win to take the match.
They next had to take on no. 3 Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) who lost to top seed Vanderbilt in the opening frame 4-2. The two National powers went back and forth with UMES taking games one and two before dropping three and four. The two teams tied in the fifth game with a 182. FDU took over from there, posting a 200-193 win in game six and a 178-167 win in the final game seven.
The final match of the day saw the Hawks face-off against no.20 Valparaiso. The upstart program topped UMES the previous day in their first ever meeting, but with third place on the line the Lady Hawks wouldn't go down without a fight. It again took seven games UMES used games three, four and five to take a 3-2 lead. Valpo won game six 192-190 but UMES turned it on in game seven to seal the win, 181-166.
The Lady Hawks are now 36-10 on the young season after posting an overall mark of 8-5 on the weekend.
The Commodores of Vanderbilt won their fourth straight Hawk Classic with a commanding outing and posting an 11-1 mark. FDU was second with a 7-5 mark and UMES third with an 8-5 record. Valparaiso (9-3), New Jersey City (7-6), no. 7 Arkansas State (6-6), no. 13 Adelphi (7-5), no. 10 Kutztown (8-4), no. 18 Saint Francis (NY) (8-5) and no. 6 Delaware State (8-5) rounded out the top ten teams.
Individually, UMES' Vilas was named Tournament MVP for her dominating individual performance of 1015 pins and a 203 average on the second day of the event. Arkansas State's Rachael Gittings, Adelphi's Danielle Merino, Vanderbilt's Brittni Hamilton and Delaware State's Angela Reynolds were named to the All-Tournament Team.
UMES now heads to the National Collegiate Team Match Games in St. Louis this weekend, November 27-28. While they will face some NCAA teams at the event, the tournament will allow UMES to qualify for a United States Bowling Congress (USBC) sectional qualifier later in the season, an event they won last season to earn a berth to the USBC Championships.
