VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia — Sometimes you just have to show what you are made of.
After plowing through an early Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Championship Megamatch with No. 6 University of Alabama at Birmingham 2-0, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore got off to a hot start versus No. 2 seed Delaware State taking a 1-0 lead after Traditional play.
But a Hornets hot streak through total pinfall Baker play saw the score knotted 1-1 and headed to best-of-seven Baker play on a lane pair that seemed increasingly disparate as the day went on.
Despite a tough look, the stingy lane and a Delaware State squad that steadfastly refused to go away, the Hawks persevered to win and will face No. 1 seed North Carolina A&T State on Saturday (March 26) afternoon at 1 p.m.
"It was really hard at first, but we were trying to focus on making good shots, seeing the lanes the right way and figuring it out as fast as we could," junior Alejandra Amezcua (Baja California, Mexico) said. "And we were there for each other. I think that was the thing that helped us the most."
The matchup was a study in different approaches as the two teams couldn't have been more different. The Hornets are a loud high-energy squad and played off their own momentum, while the Hawks (73-48) are a much more low-energy team that has a more methodical approach. Eastern Shore also played much faster, often getting two or more frames ahead by the end of each game — especially when things were going well.
"It was kind of a weird dynamic the entire time and it really came down to how focused can we stay and can we just make the shots when we need them?" Petrin said.
That happened on plenty of occasions Friday afternoon, but one of the biggest shots of the day came in the ninth frame of Game 6 with The Shore leading 3-2. After a shaky start, the Hawks had struck in frames three through six to build momentum, but faltered in the next two frames thanks in part to a split. With the Hawks several frames ahead of DSU once again and trying to put on the pressure, Amezcua fired off a strike which Brooke Roberts (Port Orange, Florida) followed with one of her own in the 10th and the team finished the game with a 207-191 win as the Hornets fell short I their attempt to catch up.
"She straight pured that shot," Petrin said. "I told her I didn't think she has thrown a shot better this whole year."
"I was just trusting myself in the moment," Amezcua said. "I shot it like any other shot. It was just another shot and I was focused on making it a good shot and getting my job done."
Getting to that point was a trial as the Hawks put up a 219 in the first game and barely held off DSU, which finished with a 217.
"We made our adjustments, but I think by the end of it the girls were playing three total boards different from one lane to the other and almost at the arrows," Petrin said. "They were tricky and it was clear that there was one lane that was favorable to both teams. We were fortunate to get a win on the bad lane early. That helped us tremendously. If we don't win that game we are probably not winning."
The Hornets won the second game (also on the rough lane), before the Hawks eked out another 171-170 to go up 2-1. The Shore pushed the lead to 3-1 before Delaware State reeled off seven straight strikes on the way to a 259-158 win to come within 3-2.
"We were a No. 3 seed, so it wasn't supposed to be easy," Hawks coach Roger Petrin said. "We knew this match wasn't going to be easy. We knew coming in that if things fell the way we expected this was going to be a tough one and it was. I fully expected us to go three sets.
"Delaware State is a good team. They made the ITC Championship field and they have won some events this year. Typically they are scoring better than us, but head-to-head doesn't show that. They are a damn good team and they are young."
Petrin said that once the Hawks won the first set by a 1,073-920 score in Traditional play of course the thought became "let's go ahead and finish this."
However Delaware State's 1040-876 win in Baker total pinfall pushed the match on.
Amezcua didn't start the day in the lineup, instead The Shore went with sophomore Brooke Driver in the first Megamatch and in the Traditional portion of the second before she started to lose her look due to the transition.
"We are always playing for competitive advantage," Petrin said. "She likes to play left, Brook likes to play right and when right went away you have to look at what the shapes are doing. When she came in and threw a fill shot and struck, I figured we needed to get her in there and see what we could do. From that point on, I think she hit the pocket the majority of the time."
Earlier on Friday, The Shore took down No. 6 seed University of Alabama Birmingham 2-0. In Traditional play Gabriella Ochoa Hubbard (Nogales, Sonora, Mexico) led the Hawks with a 238, while Roberts had a 206 and Driver a 201.
Eastern Shore won Traditional 113-932 and then took Baker 1046-861 to start the day off strong.
"I was just really excited to get out here especially since we have been playing so well," Driver said. "We came here with a lot of confidence and our first match went really well, so that was a boost for us. I just knew we had it in us to win the next one so I wasn't worried. I had confidence in my team that we were going to win and we pulled it out."
By the end of the mentally draining marathon on Friday, the Hawks were looking forward to some promised team bonding in the evening and the prospect of getting to sleep in on Saturday was an enticing one as well as being well-earned.
"We threw a lot of really good shots," Petrin said. "When we got done, I told the girls that Delaware State had better shapes than us and we had to bowl well to get what we did. The fact of the matter was that they had a couple games over 240 (245,259) and we didn't have those looks at all."
The winner of Saturday's match will advance straight to Sunday's final at 2 p.m., while the loser will need to battle their way out of the consolation bracket early Sunday morning in order to get there.
"We are going to go have some fun tonight and then going into tomorrow we are going to look at tomorrow's match the same as we looked at last week's matches against A&T (Eastern Shore won twice in Best-of-7 Baker at the Music City Classic) and then we're going to take the win," Driver said.
