Stephen F. Austin
Kutztown Tournament
Ladyjacks Solid Again At Kutztown Invitational
2/1/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Bowling
Feb. 1, 2010
READING, Penn. - With eight of the top 10 teams in the nation in attendance, the Ladyjack bowling team put together another solid performance in its longest road trip of the season on Saturday and Sunday at the Kutztown Invitational.
The Ladyjacks finished right in the middle of the pack with five wins in 10 matches over the course of two days of competition, even picking up a total pin victory on Saturday over No. 10 St. Francis.
"Overall I am pretty pleased with the way we performed," head coach Laura Cramer said. "Any time you have a road trip this long it can certainly wear on you, but we managed to come out and get four wins on our first day which made us all pretty happy."
SFA showed why it continues to knock on the door of the national rankings with four wins in six tries on Saturday when the teams competed in total-pin format. Brandy Hensley paced the SFA squad in the first match of the day with a 225 in a 913-738 win over North Carolina Central.
The Ladyjacks then bowled a solid 932 in their second match, but the nation's No. 4 ranked team - Fairleigh-Dicksinon - was too much with an 1120 despite Hensley and Dustie Hammond each going over 200 in their game. Nationally-ranked Central Missouri then took a 989-890 win over SFA in the next match despite a season-best 209 from Moe Surkein, but the Ladyjacks managed to rally in the final three matches of the day.
That started with a 959-835 win over Hampton behind a 199 from Hammond just one match before SFA knocked off No. 10 St. Francis. SFA got a team-best 219 in that match from Hammond and Sierra Gibbons also put together a solid 211 as the Ladyjacks narrowly squeaked by the Terriers by a 948-936 margin. SFA then closed out the day with a 920-817 win over Bethune-Cookman behind a 235 from Ashli Rosenkrantz and a 198 by Surkein.
The teams then changed format on the tournament's final day as they seeded the teams based upon Saturday's results with matches transitioning to total-pin Bake format. SFA took the No. 14 seed and opening up the day with a narrow 706-701 loss to Medaille. That set up a match with Penn State-Altoona where the Ladyjacks managed to take a 737-559 win.
But after another format switch, this time to best-of-seven Baker games, the Ladyjacks could not sustain the momentum from that win and instead fell in consecutive matches to St. Peter's (4-1) and to Southern (4-3).
SFA next hosts its own tournament - the Piney Woods Invitational - at Texas Pro Bowl beginning at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday. The Ladyjacks will be joined by Southern, Grambling, Prairie View A&M and Texas Southern. SFA, Southern and Prairie View A&M were each receiving votes in the latest NTPA poll released Thursday.
-SFA-
