DEPTFORD, New Jersey — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore opened bracket play on Sunday at the Northeast Classic with a 4-1 victory against National Tenpin Coaches Association No. 15 Mount St. Mary's, but couldn't put together a run dropping their next two and finishing in 16th place in the field of 34.
"Today was a better overall day for the team," Hawks coach Roger Petrin said. "We put some decent scores together, we just got beat. There is not much we can do about that other than just bowl better."
In the day's second match, the Hawks (45-26, 6-2 MEAC) fell to Merrimack College 4-1, after taking a 1-0 lead to start. They went on to drop the next four games by a total of just 30 pins.
"The Merrimack loss is the one I'd really like to have back," Petrin said. "You see all the games were within 10 pins of each other and we missed at least one makeable spare every game. In the first game, we had no business winning it, but we ran the back five after posting opens in the first five frames."
A rematch with The Mount came next with the Hawks falling 4-2.
"It was a long weekend and I'm glad it's done," Petrin said. "There are some things we'll be working on skill wise. What needed to be done this weekend were some things we aren't as good at as a team. There are other teams that are similar to us in the way they like to play lanes and they struggled too. So when I see that it means we need to work on a skill that would have helped us score."
UMES will return to action Jan. 10-12 at the James Brown Invitational in Towson, Maryland.
