SMYRNA, Tennessee — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore qualified for the United States Bowling Congress Intercollegiate Team Championships for the first time since the 2018-19 season Sunday (March 12) night by virtue of a second place finish at the 17-team sectional at Smyrna Bowling Center in Smyrna, Tennessee.
"It was a good solid weekend," Hawks coach Roger Petrin said. "Obviously we wish that the entire weekend was like our first 16 games, but the lanes got tricky. We bowled pretty well and overall we did a good job grinding through all of our sets and we had some that started off really rough and managed to get some decent scores out of it."
UMES opened play on Saturday morning at a torrid place over the first 16 games with a 3,273, which is an average of 204.56 per game. The Hawks took a bit of a dip in the second half of the day on Saturday with a 3,041 (190.06) and dropped from first to second place, but were in a great position heading into the second day of competition.
"I told my wife earlier this week that I thought the weekend might be defined by the first 16 games," Petrin said. "I didn't tell the team that, but the first 16 was what I wanted to see to know what we were going to do. I knew if we could put something good up in the first 16 then we could just manage things well. If we had gotten into a hole or we were around everyone else the whole time, it could have gotten difficult in those last couple of sets."
The Hawks (66-37, 10-6 MEAC) opened Sunday play looking to improve their standing if they could. While they didn't manage to gain any pins on National Tenpin Coaches Association No. 1 McKendree in the opening half of the day, they did improve to 193.75 per game and kept a strong hold on second.
In the day's final 16 games, UMES averaged 196.88 and ended up 249 total pins ahead of third-place University of St. Francis (Illinois) and 510 pins up on University of Tennessee Southern.
"I said at the beginning of the week that it was going to be a grind and it was a grind," Petrin said. "I know the girls are tired and they worked hard this week, so they should be tired."
No member of this team has been to USBC Nationals or the NCAA Tournament before. Petrin's Kentucky Wesleyan squad — on which Hawks graduate student Alyssa Zombirt (Southaven, Mississippi) was a member — finished 10th at the USBC Sectionals in 2020-21.
"This is a lot of firsts for all of us," Petrin said. "This is my first national as a coach. It's all going to be new ground and it's all bonus bowling from here."
The NTCA No. 10 Hawks — who maintained their position in the new March poll — will have just one day to recover after getting back to campus Monday morning. They will return to practice on Tuesday to prepare for the last regular season event of the year and what they hope is a long postseason run.
Next up is the Music City Classic, which will send the team right back to Smyrna March 17-19.
