HARAHAN, Louisiana — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore went undefeated over three days of competition at the Colonial Lanes Classic — including a pair of bracket play victories against Top 10 teams on Sunday (Oct. 16) — and finished as the event champions.
The three-day event victory was the first for the program since The Cougar Classic on Oct. 28, 2019. Seniors Elizabeth Ross (Schenectady, New York) and Brooke Roberts (Port Orange, Florida) each made the All-Tournament team, while Ross was the top individual performer.
"A lot of things just went our way as the weekend went on," Petrin said. "It's great that we won and we're coming away with the win, the trophy, a couple of great All-Tournament representatives and we're stoked to be where we're at.
"But we also know it's the first event of a very long season, so we're going to have to look back at the stats and see where the areas are that we can still grow."
The Hawks (11-0) opened the day with a 4-2 best-of-seven Baker win against Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference rival and National Tenpin Coaches Association No. 7 North Carolina A&T State.
A 4-1 win against No. 8 Louisiana Tech followed to give UMES the first-place finish.
"Honestly, I wasn't expecting what happened this weekend to occur so quickly," Petrin said. "Hopefully, that is a good sign of what things are to come throughout the year. Winning the event was never in my mind. I just wanted to see us take the things we were doing in practice and do it in competition. We did those things, the pins happened to fall our way and I don't think we ever felt like we were focused on winning. We were focused on scoring and just bowling.
"That is the outcome we are seeking. We don't want to focus on anyone, but ourselves and just do what we know we do best. That's knock down pins."
The team spent most of Sunday on the road headed back to campus, so with two weeks until the next event on the schedule (The Track Kat Klash in Houston, Texas, Nov. 4-6) Petrin already planned to give the champs a well-deserved break from the lanes on Monday to celebrate the win and prepare to refocus on Tuesday.
"Maintaining focus is mental and emotional," Petrin said. "These long weekends of winning a lot can cause one of those hangovers as you head into the next event and you are going through the motions. When we come back on Tuesday, we are back to focusing on what is in front of us."
