MILLSBORO, Delaware — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore went 1-2 in bracket play during the final day of competition at the Eastern Shore Hawk Classic at Millsboro Lanes, in Millsboro, Delaware and finished the event in eighth place.
"I think we did what we could with what we had available at the time," Hawks head coach Roger Petrin said. "It just wasn't a good day altogether."
National Tenpin coaches association UMES dropped the opening best-of-seven Baker match of the day to No. 13 Duquesne 4-0. The next match saw the Hawks pull out a 4-2 win against No. 16 Sacred Heart, but they faltered again in a 4-1 loss to No. 5 Sam Houston State.
The Hawks (31-14, 6-2 MEAC) had high hopes of making moves heading into Day 2 of the event, but a tough time in the middle matches left them as the No. 8 seed heading into bracket play. The best finish they could have come away with was fifth, but they had to settle for salvaging eighth.
Heading into the event UMES had the No. 3 RPI in the country — which is a measure of performance against strength of schedule.
"I don't want to read too much into how we did today," Petrin said. "There is a lot that needs to come from it and I still haven't fully processed it. There is still more time to evaluate it. We're about to have a Thanksgiving week so there is even more time to let it sink in and see where we go from here."
The Hawks will return to action at the Stormin' Blue & White Vegas Classic hosted by Mount Saint Mary's Jan. 8-10. After some time away from the lanes this week, things could change a bit between now and January in order to work on particular skills, challenge the team a bit more and just to keep practice from getting stale.
"I know that we are going to be moving forward, probably with some different alternative options for practice moving forward," Petrin said. "Being out of competition so long is going to be a part of it, but I think we were missing some skills or missing some comfortability with the skills that were needed to score this weekend.
"We need to reestablish a level of comfort in making shots, however the lanes are asking us to make shots."
Sunday was senior day for the Hawks and both senior Elizabeth Ross (Schenectady, New York) and fifth-year transfer Alyssa Zombirt (Southaven, Mississippi) were honored by the team before competition began.
