FINAL TEAM RESULTS

The Saint Vincent women's bowling team earned its first-ever berth to the Intercollegiate Team Championships by finishing second in the Pittsburgh Sectional, held at AMF Mount Lebanon Lanes.

The Bearcats finished second among a field of 17 teams comprised of NCAA and NAIA programs.  Advancing to Nationals along with Saint Vincent were McKendree University (1st place, and an NCAA Division II program, Duquesne University (3rd, an NCAA D1 program) and Trine University (4th, Club program).  

SVC was strong throughout the tournament, which was comprised of a tough schedule of 64 Baker team games broken up into four sessions over two days.  SVC finished day one in second place, averaging 190.8 for the day.  Midway through day two, the team had slipped to fourth place, but was only 11 pins away from third and 18 out of second, and still well ahead of fifth place, which kept them in the cut to advance.  

The Sunday afternoon session - the final block of 16 games - proved to be the team's best of the weekend.  A four-game total of 777 (194.2 average) in the first round moved the team up into third, where they remained going into the final four games of the day.  In the opening game of the last round, the Bearcats started with six consecutive strikes, en route to a 252 game.  They followed with scores of 203, 185 and 216, for a four-game total of 856 (214 average), the team's best of the weekend, which boosted them into second place and locked the team into the National Championship Tournament.

For the weekend, the team averaged 190.3.  Leading the way was sophomore Brooke Street with a weekend average of 202.1, which included a second-day average of 224.6.  Street ended the tournament with 45 consecutive "clean" frames, without missing a pin, a new school record.  She was followed on the scoresheet by junior Skyy Nicholls (199.7), who also equaled another school record with 9 consecutive strikes at one point on Sunday, and sophomore Mareana Pilyih (199.7).  Rounding out the lineup for SVC for the weekend were freshman Savannah Douglass (186.6), sophomore Lilly Houle (182.7), sophomore Kaylie Kurland (180.5), junior Daphne Stuber (178.6), and junior Lexi Pilyih (160).  

The Bearcats advance to the ITC National Tournament, set for April 14-18 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.  Prior to that, however, the team still has a chance to make the NCAA National Tournament.  The quest for the team's second straight NCAA Tournament appearance begins this Friday, March 20, at Pines Plaza Lanes in Pittsburgh, where the Bearcats enter the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Championship tournament as the #1 seed.