HOUSTON, Texas — Friday (Nov. 4) didn't begin great for the University of Maryland Eastern Shore as a slow start on the lanes resulted in a pair of team Baker losses before it rebounded to finish the day strong.
After an opening win despite a low score, the Hawks (14-2) dropped their next two matches before rebounding to top National Tenpin Coaches Association No. 8 Louisiana Tech and No. 17 Tulane.
"We didn't have our best stuff," head coach Roger Pterin said. "I think we could have done different things to line up better, but once the lights turned on we started missing the shots we have been making in practice."
No. 14 UMES opened play with a victory against Alabama A&M despite putting up just 921 pins to begin the morning.
"It was one of those weird days where there was some nervous energy at the very beginning," Petrin said. "I would say through two-and-a-half matches we were focusing on the scores and recognizing what other teams were doing rather than just focusing on us.
"Some of us, I think, were trying to recreate the last event, but this wasn't last event. This is a different event and we can't go in with the mentality that we are going to win every single match and it's just going to come to us."
The Hawks then crashed head on into a 1,231 put up by host and No. 8 Sam Houston State. Despite a pretty solid 991 in that match, they left a lot of pins on a pair of lanes that were playing wide open.
The third match of the day came against No. 24 Lincoln Memorial when the squad started to turn things around.
"That's where we stopped the girls and told them that we needed to do something different," Petrin said. "We had to stop focusing on the scores, do us and just do what we do. That's when things started to come together. We still lost that match because we put ourselves in a the hole, but the rest of the way we improved."
Senior Alejandra Amezcua (Baja California, Mexico) had the strongest individual day overall and missed just one single pin spare the whole day.
Freshman Mariana Santos (Jumandi, Colombia) came on strong later in the day and bowled lead off during each of the team's two late wins.
On Saturday, the Hawks will open Traditional play against Alabama State, then face No. 3 Nebraska, Texas Southern, Southern and Prairie View A&M.
Play begins at 10:30 eastern time.
