PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore women's bowling squad bookended five-game Baker play on Friday at the Northeast Classic with strong play and escaped Day 1 with a 3-2 record.
The highlight of the day for the Hawks was a 1,037-1,009 win against National Tenpin Coaches Association No. 1 Sam Houston State. Despite the strong victory, The Shore (36-29, 3-5 MEAC) finds itself in 15th place in pinfall heading into Saturday's Traditional play.
"It's starting to become a trend now," Hawks coach Roger Petrin said. "I think we saw that last event, where we had one of the better records, but we have these couple hiccup type of games and or matches and it really kills us in our total pinfall"
No. 18 Eastern Shore opened with a 951-886 win against No. 20 Wisconsin-Whitewater and then topped Wilmington University 994-925. They ran into a buzz saw in the next match as No. 8 Youngstown State ran up 1,164 to trump a 999 by the Hawks.
The next match against No. 22 Lincoln Memorial was the low point of the day — a 974-880 loss — but The Shore closed out with the win against the Bearkats.
"Someone said to learn how to win you must first learn how not to lose," Petrin said. "I feel like that is where we are stuck right now. We are in that learning how not to lose state. Four of our five matches today we bowled really solid sets. There was nothing great, but we had four solid sets that depending on how the other team bowled we would win. Three of those turned into wins."
Junior Brooke Roberts (Port Orange, Florida) had a strong day for The Hawks and in particular the match against the Penguins where there were just two or three frames where she didn't strike out of 20 frames.
"There were some matches where we lost our looks a little bit and then we got it back," Petrin said. "It's just a matter of doing it faster tomorrow when the transition comes and recognizing the transition at a faster pace."
The event features a field where 17 of the 18 teams competing are ranked in the NTCA Top 25. Wilmington — the field's lone competitor not on the list is among those others receiving votes. Since the Hawks faced the Wildcats on Friday, it reasons that Saturday's draw would be tougher.
That is the case as Eastern Shore will tangle with No. 17 Long Island, No. 2 McKendree, No. 5 Vanderbilt, No. 10 Maryville and No. 11 Stephen F. Austin.
"We have an opportunity here to get some more wins against highly-ranked teams," Petrin said. "Everybody bowled pretty well today at different times. We just have to do it for more than a few frames at a time as a group."
