PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore finished in eighth place at the Stormin' Blue & White Invitational on Monday (Jan. 10) finishing bracket play with a 1-2 record.
The Hawks (33-27, 3-5 MEAC) picked up a 4-3, come-from-behind victory against Tulane in a match where they started out with a 2-0 advantage before the Green Wave fought back to go up 3-2.
"I'm torn with how I feel about the finish," Hawks coach Roger Petrin said. "We had a really good weekend overall and the problem is I feel like we are so close to being something special and we can't get over the hump yet to where we need to be."
The Shore spent much of Sunday in fourth place based on pinfall and while they were a perfect 5-0 on the day, the pinfall numbers late in the day didn't come.
"We really wanted to maintain fourth place for an opportunity to move into first during bracket play Monday," Petrin said. "I think this is the first time this year we were in that position for multiple games during the weekend. We fell out of it on opening day and the last day in the last two sets. We are getting there."
After dropping to seventh on Sunday, Eastern Shore advanced by eight-seeded Tulane on Monday only to face a difficult 4-0 loss to Maryville in the next round.
A rematch with Tulane came next and the Hawks again took a 2-0 lead before dropping the next three. However, the sixth game proved to be their undoing as the Green Wave pulled out a 4-2 win.
Junior Brooke Roberts (Port Orange, Florida) made the events All-Tournament squad based on her 211.00 average in Traditional play on Sunday.
The Hawks had just five active players at the event because of COVID-19 protocols, so that made things difficult, but it also forced every individual to work through whatever difficulties they may be having at any time.
"There were times when everybody did their part to hold up the team," Petrin said. "Everybody had good looks multiple times throughout the weekend and there were a couple moments where we were able to put it all together at one time. Friday's 1,114 in Baker play was our biggest set all year."
Eastern Shore will have the next weekend off before traveling to Deptford, New Jersey for the Northeast Classic Jan. 21-23.
"We are improving each event and I think we took what we learned at the Hawk Classic and applied it to this event," Petrin said. "It's a grind and I think we'll just have to keep picking away and then we'll get there."
