Kats survive to advance to Saturday
4/10/2015 5:56:00 PM | Women's Bowling
RICHMOND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Facing elimination, the Bearkats roared past Central Missouri 4-0 to stay alive in the 2015 NCAA Bowling Championship. The Kats won the open match with a 203-168 win and never looked back.
The were facing elimination after falling in the first match of the day to Nebraska, 4-1.
“It's tough to come back after losing, especially knowing we had our chances against Nebraska,” said head coach Brad Hagen. “But we were able to make some big shots and that's what this is all about.”
In game two against UCM the Kats used a stretch of five straight strikes from the third to the seventh frames to take the game by 26 pins. Game three was the only tight one for the Kats as they squeaked out a 181-179 win after Anna Groce closed the 10th with a spare and nine pins.
Groce came up big again in the fourth game, getting a strike in the fifth to start a run of three straight, and then closed out the match with a double in the 10th.
“Any time you double in the 10th and you know you have won is always a great feeling,” Groce said. “It's all for the team, and just the feeling of turning around and seeing their faces and knowing we are not going home is amazing.
The Kats will now advance to another elimination game to face Fairliegh Dickinson on Saturday.
“Tomorrow is a big deal, because we are fighting out of the contenders bracket,” Hagen said. “We are going to reflect on the day and take a look at what we did at the start of the day and more importantly what happened at the end of the.”
In a rematch of last season's national championship match, the Bearkats fell to Nebraska four games to one in the opening match of Friday's bracket play. Open frames late in games 3 and five cost the Bearkats a chance to take the match from the second-seeded Cornhuskers.
After Nebraska took advantage of back-to-back open frames in the second and third frames by the Kats to win game one, Sam Houston answered right back to win the second game using a string of five straight strikes in the middle frames.
But with a chance to take a 2-1 lead in game three, the Bearkats left the ninth and 10th frames open to lose 186-181.
Once again, back-to-back open frames early in game four cost the Kats and then in the fifth with a chance to extend the match, the Bearkats left the ninth frame open and lost 196-181.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS BRACKET PLAY RESULTS
First Round:
Stephen F. Austin 4, Wisconsin-Whitewater 2
Arkansas State 4, Central Missouri 2
Nebraska 4, Sam Houston 1
Fairleigh Dickinson 4, Vanderbilt 2
Second Round:
Stephen F. Austin 4, Fairleigh Dickinson 3
Nebraska 4, Arkansas State 1
Loser's Bracket Round 1:
Sam Houston 4, Central Missouri 0
Wisconsin-Whitewater 4, Vanderbilt 2
Loser's Bracket Round 2:
Sam Houston vs. Fairleigh Dickinson
Wisconsin-Whitewater vs. Arkansas State
Winner's Bracket Third Round:
Nebraska vs. SHSU-FDU winner
Stephen F. Austin vs. Wisconsin-Whitewater-Arkansas State winner
