VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia — No. 2 seeded University of Maryland Eastern Shore started play on Friday (March 24) at the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Championship just fine, picking up a 2-0 Megamatch victory against Norfolk State.

"I think we grinded well through the first Megamatch, but it was a tough pair," Hawks coach Roger Petrin said. "The two teams that followed said the pair was hard for them as well."

The Hawks (75-43) then opened the day's second battle with No. 3 seed Monmouth with a 913-809 Traditional win, but found new struggles as the match went on. Monmouth pulled out the Baker Total Pinfall win (969-959) to even it at 1-1 and then took Best-of-Seven Baker 4-1.

"The second Megamatch just came down to a lot of key moments where we didn't make the quality shots in the key moment," Petrin said. "I felt like there was some good bowling that was happening, but then there would be a flip of a switch and a really bad shot in a key moment. There were some times I thought we were outbowling Monmouth, but there were bad moments at bad times."

Because they are now carrying a loss in the double-elimination event, the Hawks now know that the next one spells the end of their conference title quest. But that doesn't mean their approach will change.

"We do have to win every match," Petrin said. "So it's just one match at a time, one set at a time, one game at a time and one shot at a time. We have to reset the focus for tomorrow morning, come out of the gates hot and get on a tear."

UMES will face No. 4 seeded University of Alabama at Birmingham to open Saturday (March 25) morning play at 9. Every win will move then on, while a loss will send them home.