PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland — The last time the University of Maryland Eastern Shore went through a MEAC event with an undefeated record was during the 2019-20 season, which was cut short by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Until Sunday, when the Hawks (55-39, 11-5 MEAC) topped National Tenpin Coaches Association No. 18 Morgan State, Howard, Alabama-Birmingham and No. 6 North Carolina A&T State to finish the second MEAC meet of the season with an 8-0 Traditional match record.
"I'm happy to see the things I feel like what we have been discussing with the girls, and what they have been communicating back is starting to translate from practice, meetings and our past history to competition," Head coach Roger Petrin said. "We are still at a very young phase of me being here at the school and I am still a young coach. My first year as a head coach was a COVID year and this is still a little bit of a messed up year. So I am still learning and I don't know all the answers, but between all of us somebody has the answer to what we are trying to figure out."
Elizabeth Ross (Schenectady, New York) had a five-game average of 215.00, while Brook Roberts (Port Orange, Florida) was close behind with a nine-game average of 2010.11 and Gabriella Ochoa-Hubbard (Nogales, Sonora, Mexico) averaged 199.56 over nine games.
The Shore opened both days of competition strong on the fresh, putting up 1,080 against the Bears to open Sunday after laying four digits on the Eagles on Saturday.
"That has been one of the key pieces of this year," Petrin said. "So many teams gain pins on us in that first set and that has been a big point for us. If we can get off to a better start, that's huge. But I'm super thrilled with how we did this weekend. The girls are very thrilled and this is one of those times when you want to avoid a trap where we start to relax. We'll enjoy this the rest of the day and tomorrow we go back to conditioning, back to practice and prepare for next week."
The Shore will next travel to the Stalling Invitational in Greensboro, North Carolina on Feb. 25-27, hosted by the Aggies. Many of the same teams they faced this past weekend will be in that field.
