LAS VEGAS, Nevada — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore battled through three tough bracket matches against National Tenpin Coaches Association Top 10 opponents on the final day of the Stormin' Blue & White Vegas Classic on Tuesday (Jan. 10). Despite strong scoring by the Hawks, the team dropped the first two matches before picking up a 4-3 victory against No. 5 Stephen F. Austin to take fifth place in the event.
"It was a good day," Petrin said. "Matches are getting harder and we are bowling tougher teams now. We didn't bowl badly. We bowled well and we grinded well."
It was the team's mental toughness, drive and ability to grind through the adversity of the weekend against a very strong field that has Petrin most excited about his team moving forward.
"In the last two years, we didn't really do well grinding through adversity," Petrin said. "When things weren't going our way through a match we did well instead of putting up an 860, we did well to push through and get a 960 or 970 and still give ourselves a chance in matches. Overall, I'm pleased with how we did over the entire weekend. A fifth place finish in an event that had four of the Top 5 teams in the field and seven of the Top 10 is a good finish. I think this placement warrants moving up in the rankings."
No. 10 UMES (39-19, 6-2 MEAC) opened the day with No. 4 Nebraska and after dropping the first game 206-183, the Hawks won three straight and needed just one more victory. But the Cornhuskers took the last three games including a whisker close 208-202 in the last one.
"Honestly I didn't even realize it was 3-1," Petrin said. "We were really into ourselves and it wasn't really about the last three games. We saw what needed to happen in the first game and the second game. Not getting the win in the first game hurt us and we adjusted. Then transition happened at the wrong time for us and it took us a bit to figure out what had happened. By that point Nebraska had gotten really dialed in."
In the day's second match — a 4-2 loss to No. 9 Louisiana Tech — UMES were a bit behind on the transition and Petrin put the blame on himself for not figuring things out sooner.
But the final match was another big win against the No. 5 Ladyjacks by a 4-2 score. The Hawks are 3-0 against SFA this season.
UMES will return to action Jan 20-22 at the Northeast Classic in Deptford, New Jersey.
