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Kutztown Invite Stat Pack 2015

READING, Pa. - The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) women's bowling team came up a little short, missing their fifth tournament title in their seventh try at the Kutztown Invitational. Winners of the last three titles in a row, the Hawks put themselves in place yesterday to vie for the top spot. They came up short in their first match against Wisconsin-Whitewater (UWW), but turned around to top Arkansas State and then UWW again to claim third place. And did they sure put an exclamation point on their win, topping the WarHawks of UWW 4-0 and along the way shooting a perfect 300 Baker game, the third in program history and second at this event.

UMES last shot a perfect Baker game in 2013 at this very tournament and just as she was then, senior Mariana Alvarado (Leon, Mexico) was part of the lineup. Previously, former Hawk and All-American Paula Vilas shot an individual 300 at the same event, giving UMES three in Kutztown and one previously in 2004 in Houston, Texas.

"I stayed in the moment and focused on hitting my mark," said Alvarado, who has now been part of two of the three Baker 300s in school history. Head Coach Kayla Bandy had talked to the team about thinking positive things before each shot to keep themselves relaxed. Alvarado, who was in the anchor position and had to throw three strikes in the final frame to secure perfection, said right before her last strike, "my last thought was about my mom and then we had the 300, it was amazing!"

The lineup that threw the perfect game was led-off by freshman Melanie Copey (Ontario, N.Y.) and followed by Victoria Jones (Baltimore, Md.), Valerie Riggin (Vista, Calif.), Tatiana Munoz (Ibague Tolima, Colombia) and Alvarado in anchor. "All the shots were on target and entered the pins perfect," said Bandy. "Brett [Assistant Coach Brett Cunningham] and I knew we had a good look coming out of the Arkansas State match previously. We knew we just had to follow the transition and keep the girls in the right spot on the lane, that was our part, but I can't say enough about the execution of their shots overall in the final two matches. They were on and it showed a lot in the 300 game."

The win (300-194) was in game two of the final match against the seventh-ranked and fourth-seeded WarHawks of UWW. It gave UMES a 2-0 lead after winning game one 236-182. The Hawks rolled through the next two games 211-198 and 213-200 to secure the win and take third place overall.

The win over UWW featured the Hawks only freshman, Melanie Copey, who coach Bandy couldn't say enough about. "She really brought the energy and everyone followed behind her. She had great ball reaction and came in striking."

"I knew I just had to do my job," said Copey. "I took a deep breath and told myself I had to step up for my teammates, I'm glad we came together."

Copey was in for Thashaina Seraus (Oranjestad, Aruba) who bowled in the opening loss on the day. "She just didn't have a good look in the first match," said Bandy. "Obviously it's not an ideal situation to have one of your top performing student-athletes from the day before out for two of the toughest matches of the tournament, but the team came together beautifully and overcame adversity."

In order to get to the third place match the Hawks had to take out the sixth-seeded Red Wolves of Arkansas State first. ASU topped fifth-seeded Vanderbilt in their first match and it set up a rematch of last weekend's championship match at the Mid-Winter Invite. UMES made quick work of the No. 3 ranked Red Wolves, winning game one 235-196 before dropping the second match 189-167. Just as it was last weekend, it seemed that if UMES topped 200, they could beat ASU. They rolled through the next three games 208-182, 247-240 and 234-201. The win vaulted UMES back into the third/fourth place match and dropped ASU into the fifth/sixth match where Vanderbilt got revenge to claim the fifth place spot with ASU settling for sixth.

It was the first match of the day that meant UMES couldn't repeat as champions. They fell to the same WarHawk team they tossed a 300 game against later in the day. UMES won the first game 210-166 but UWW took the next four (225-176, 228-172, 219-182, 211-169).

"The match was unacceptable," said Bandy. "We had a long discussion after it because we weren't executing our shots. We didn't stay in the moment. I talked to the team about doing that, executing shots, staying in the moment, finding strength in on another. It's not always going to going to be easy, we will face adversity and sometimes we just have to fill frames to get the job done."

The conversation seemed to do the trick as UMES got right back to business. "We got back to how we bowled the last three tournaments, executing out shots and filling frames. Good things happen when you do that," said a smiling Bandy.

While the Hawks were not able to win their third straight tournament this season, or fourth straight Kutztown Invite championship, they still had a solid outing, going 11-3 on the weekend and pushing their overall record to 56-19.

UMES now has four wins (2010, 2012, 2013, 2014), a runner-up (2011), a third place (2015) and a sixth place (2009) in one of the largest tournaments in the country each season to go along with three 300 games, all at Heister Lanes in Reading, Pa.

Fairleigh Dickinson, the nation's second-ranked team won the event over No. 4 and top seed Central Missouri, edging them out 4-3. FDU represented one of the Hawks' three losses on the weekend.

The event was covered live by the United States Bowling Congress (USBC), who provided three full days of live streaming from one of the top NCAA Women's Bowling events when they broadcasted live on BOWL.com's BowlTV. They have covered this event live for the last several years. Fans can tune in to see the recorded stream of the Hawks' 300 game by visiting BOWL.com or YouTube.com/BowlTV.

UMES will now head south looking for similar or even better results. "No rest for the weary," said Bandy. "We will get right back to practice and get ready for next weekend."

UMES will next travel to the Prairie View Invitational in Arlington, Texas next weekend, January 30-Feb. 1 hosted at the International Training and Research Center, home of Team USA and the USBC. It is also another tough field, featuring No. 1 Nebraska, No. 2 Fairleigh Dickinson, No. 3 Arkansas State, No. 4 Central Missouri, No. 5 Sam Houston State, No. 6 Vanderbilt, No. 8 Stephen F. Austin, the ninth ranked Hawks and No. 10 North Carolina A&T. With nine of the top ten teams and others that are ranked, it will another huge test for UMES. Action starts Friday at 12:15 p.m. Central Time, 1:15 p.m. Eastern Time.