PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore has reached the put up or shut up portion of their 2022-23 season as the postseason will begin on Friday (March 24) at 9 a.m. when it takes on Norfolk State in its opening match of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Championship.
"This is our most important event of the year," Hawks head coach Roger Petrin said. "Sure, there is an opportunity there for us to earn an at-large bid, but if we are going to win an NCAA Championship we have to be able to win our conference. Now it's time to prove what we are capable of doing."
That MEAC title would come with an automatic berth to the NCAA Championship, something the Hawks have not had since the 2017-18 season. And while the National Tenpin Coaches Association No. 10 Hawks are in a good position to earn an at-large bid to the 16-team field, you never want to leave anything to a committee.
The Hawks (74-42) enter the event in a better position than a year ago at this time when just one member of the squad, then graduate student Paulina Torres, had any MEAC Championship experience.
That experience is important because postseason play is so different. While most weekends during the season — excluding USBC Intercollegiate Team Championships — the team faces five 5-game Baker matches, 5 Traditional matches and then seeded bracket play on Day 3 based on total pinfall, that will not be that case this weekend.
"In this case, we don't care about total pins," Petrin said. "We only care that our pinfall is more than the team across from us. But in the grand scheme of things, we can't find ourselves watching the other teams. We have to stay within ourselves and just do what we do. We are No. 10 in the nations, so typically if we do what we do well our scores are going to end up better than the team across from us."
On Friday morning, the eight conference teams will begin double elimination bracket play. But each matchup is in Mega Match format. The MEAC's ninth bowling team is Delaware State, but the program's bus accident forced the team to cancel the rest of its season which simplified the bracket for this year.
Mega Match format is a best-two-out-of-three format encompassing a traditional team game, a Baker total pinfall game, and a Baker best-of-seven; the team that wins two of the three formats wins the match.
"Experience matters," Petrin said. "It's going to be a slightly different event than what they are used to. We set up some practices this week in order to think about and have some discussions about lane play. It isn't going to be one hour on a pair. It is going to be 2-3 hours on one pair. So is it worth sacrificing practice shots to set up the pair for ourselves."
Following a 10th place finish at Music City, the Hawks spent their "practice" time together on Monday reconnecting as a team and turning the page to this weekend. They played pool. They played ping pong and cornhole.
"We went out of our way to do anything and everything together except throw a bowling ball," Petrin said. "That's really all we wanted to do. It's been a long two months.
"I think we are all just excited to get it going and just knock some pins down."
