RALEIGH, North Carolina – Coming into the final day of competition at the MEAC Bowling Championship, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore was looking to defend its MEAC Championship from last year. However, the Hawks came just shy of their aim as UMES finished third.
The No. 2 Hawks began the day playing out of the consolation bracket against No. 4 University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in a mega-match format of five traditional games followed by five Baker games. The the winner of the matchup would advance to the championship round to face North Carolina A&T.
Through the traditional games, the matchup remained closely contested before UAB cemented a lead in the backhalf of 10 frames as the Blazers beat UMES 950-856. Gabriella Ochoa Hubbard had the team-high with a 201 with Mariane Almeida hitting a nine on the fill ball in the tenth. Brooke Driver also doubled the century mark with a 200 while Ara Pitts hit 162. Mariana Santos Rivero and Aaliyah Friend capped the Hawks' traditional games with a 153 and 140, respectively.
In the Baker iteration of the best-of-three matchup with total pinfall the key to a win, UAB took Game 1 175 to the Hawks' 165 as the Hawks flexed the entirety of their roster. The Blazers opened their lead after the second Baker game with a 224-170 win, putting the Hawks behind by 64 pins after the first two games.
The Hawks closed the gap after the third Baker as they took a 187-144 advantage in the game to close the pinfall gap to 21. However, UAB closed out the final two games 179-146 and 190-179 to give the Blazers the 65-pin advantage to give UMES a 0-2 loss in the consolation semifinal.
"We, and starting with me, have a lot of work to do to get ready for next year. Considering it's the first year, all of us new together, it's not the way we wanted it to end, but had a lot of great moments this year too," head coach Ronald Simms Jr. said. "A lot of character building, a lot of learning. Bittersweet moment right now, more bitter than sweet, but we're going to learn from this and we're going to keep growing."
En route to Championship Sunday, UMES dropped its lone matchup of Saturday play 2-0 to North Carolina A&T. After each side wrapped up Day 1 with a 2-0 record, UMES and North Carolina A&T met in a matchup of top seeded teams from the regular season as the Hawks came in No. 2 and the Aggies as the No. 1.
The Hawks fell behind through the opening five-game traditional matchup in the best-of-three mega-match as North Carolina A&T took a 918-814 win against UMES. Santos Rivero led the Hawks in their traditional match efforts with a team-high 181 while Pitts followed up with a 168. Driver, Friend and Ochoa Hubbard closed out the Hawks' efforts with a 156, 155 and 154, respectively.
UMES closed the gap in the second portion of the mega-match of five Baker games, though the Aggies held their ground and beat the Hawks 918-886.
During the first day of competition, the Hawks began the tournament against No. 7 Coppin State and swept the win, 2-0. Pitts posted a team-best 195 in the traditional matches with Ochoa Hubbard following with a 190, Driver a 165, Santos Rivero a 163 and Friend a 152 to give UMES a 865-861 advantage over Coppin State. The Hawks followed up with a 893-804 win in the Baker matches to move on in the winner's bracket of the double elimination tournament to face No. 3 Morgan State.
"Day 1 was great. I saw fight. I didn't have girls that gave up. We kept pushing, kept trying, kept talking to figure out what we needed to do. Day 1 it worked," Simms said. "Unfortunately the last two days it didn't really flow the way we had planned and expected it to. Just couldn't really maintain the flow we needed to."
The Hawks split the first two rounds of competition with Morgan State as UMES lost the traditional matchup 872-854. Driver posted a team-high 192 in the round while Ochoa Hubbard earned a 184, Friend a 181, Santos Rivero a 153 and Almeida a 144. However, the Hawks rebounded in the Baker matches, notching a 860-782 win to force a best of seven Baker match that they won 4-1 to take the 2-1 overall win in the round.
"My girls know how I feel about them. They know I love them, they know I'm proud of them. I just told them, 'Look, this is an opportunity, embrace that opportunity.' And just kept trying to give them little nuggets along the way to keep them calm, keep them focused, keep them engaged," Simms said.
"It's real easy to get down, especially when you see your competition having a good day and you can't seem to get it going. Just trying to fight through that struggle, it's challenging, but the girls get communicating and kept trying. We just came up short today. The message I gave them at the beginning was the same I gave them at the end, I love them and I'm proud of them, and I told them thank you for allowing me to be their coach. I'm really truly appreciative for that, I'm thankful for this opportunity and I'm already ready for next year because I need to get rid of this feeling."
