GREENSBORO, North Carolina — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore went 4-1 on the opening day of the Vern Stallings Invitational with their lone loss coming to No. 2 Vanderbilt which felled pins at a blistering pace on the opening day.
The National Tenpin Coaches Association No. 10 Hawks (62-34, 10-6 MEAC) finished Day 1 in fourth place in total pinfall with 4,638 (185.5) and are just 127 pins back of second-place San Houston State, but 357 behind the Commodores.
"We are right in contention," Hawks head coach Roger Petrin said. "Vandy bowled really well today to do what they did. It's not easy and the scores are obviously pretty low right now. We have four teams in the Top 10 in the nation in this event and those are the Top 4 in the standings right now. The scoring pace shows you how hard the lanes were today."
UMES opened with an 855-853 win against Norfolk State and then put up a 934 against Vanderbilt, but came up short to a 990.
"Honestly, I don't think we were too far away from doing what Vanderbilt did today," Petrin said. "We shot 850 to start and that put us in a pretty quick hole. Our last game could have been better because there was a 140 in that set."
The Hawks beat up on Belmont Abbey (944-789), next nipped No. 9 Sam Houston State 989-933 and finished the day with a 916-794 win against Howard.
"Brooke Roberts (Port Orange, Florida) had a Brooke Roberts type of day," Petrin said. "She bowled well. I thought Brooke Driver (Woodbridge, Virginia) had one of her better performances of the year."
Mariana Santos (Jumandi, Colombia) came on later in the day and bowled well also.
"She was pretty solid all the way through," Petrin said. "To me, this was her best performance of the year. It just shows you how quick you can be throwing some important shots. She hasn't thrown a lot of shots over the last month and she threw a lot today."
Competition opens on Saturday at 9:55 with five Traditional Games.
"I think we go into tomorrow with a slightly different game plan to start and we try to get into shapes that look better at the start faster," Petrin said. "We just need to get to the quality shot making that I know we are capable of doing and that we know we are capable of doing and I think things will go our way."
