TOWSON, Maryland — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore picked up the second event victory of the season at the James Brown Invitational on Sunday (Feb. 12) afternoon.
After increasing their lead in total pinfall, the National Tenpin Coaches Association No. 10 Hawks (54-29, 6-2 MEAC) picked up two Best-of-Seven Baker wins against a pair of Top 25 teams to win the event.
"Today was a good day," Hawks coach Roger Petrin said. "It's not often in this sport that you can say you were the best of the weekend. There are so many different teams and so many people bowling at one time. It is hard to say 'We won.'"
The Hawks came into Sunday's final with more than a 200-pin lead on second-place No. 6 North Carolina A&T State with one Traditional match to go against Morgan State. They picked up the win in that one 978-902 and maintained their lead in total pinfall — the first step to the crown.
"What is even more rare is that we led qualifying by more than 300 pins and we still won," Petrin said. "So often when you lead qualifying and then can get eliminated in bracket play bad things happen and they almost did happen against The Mount."
By virtue of the No. 1 seed, the Hawks faced off with No. 18 Mount St. Mary's — which earned the No. 4 seed — to begin what ended up being a two-round bracket.
UMES fell behind 3-2, but battled back to take the 4-3 victory.
"We went into game six against Mount St. Mary's and tryed to tie it and it was a tough match," Petrin said. "Those are the kind of matches that at times this year we have folded on over the course of the year. Those are the matches we talk about in our post competition meetings as missed opportunities. These are the moments we need to be better at and today we got through it."
Seven different bowlers competed in the match with the Mountaineers.
In the day's final match, the Hawks took down Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference rival North Carolina A&T State by a 4-2 score to grab the even title.
Senior Elizabeth Ross (Schenectady, New York) won MVP honors at the event and had a six-game traditional average of 211.17, while classmate Brooke Roberts (Port Orange, Florida) also made First-Team All-Tournament with a six-game average of 203.5.
Graduate student Alyssa Zombirt (Southaven, Mississippi) and junior Brooke Driver (Woodbridge, Virginia) each made Second-Team All-Tournament.
"Two second-team and two first-team honors is big," Petrin said. "They did a great job getting to that point. Alyssa had a really solid weekend in general and Brooke Driver had a really solid weekend. What's funny is that they weren't in the last two matches.
"That just shows how dialed in we were as a team, not as individuals. I think anybody could have come in and bowled well for our team this weekend. We saw it well. We communicated well and we were the only team who averaged close to 200."
UMES is off until Feb. 17-18, when they compete in the second MEAC meet of the season hosted by the Aggies in Greensboro, North Carolina.
