Kats open SBL Championships Friday
3/22/2018 12:54:00 PM | Women's Bowling
The 2018 Southland Bowling League Championship gets underway Friday as all eight teams head to USA Bowl in Dallas for the three-day event. Featured matches of this year's tournament will be live streamed by InsideBowling.
Competition begins at 8:30 a.m. CT on Friday and Saturday with the championship match set for 9 a.m. on Sunday. For a complete schedule of matches, see the full 2018 tournament bracket.
The Bearkats will enter the tournament as the No. 3 seed and will face No.6 Valpo in the first match of the morning. The winner of that match will face the winner of No. 2 Vanderbilt and No. 7 Louisiana Tech.
“The premise of this team has always been why be a part of history when you can write it and that's exactly what we are pursuing this weekend, history,” said head coach Brad Hagen. “This team has what it takes to do big things and if we continue to build off our last event I like our odds.”
A year ago, the Bearkats also opened with Valpo in the opening round and notched a first-round victory. They dropped their next two matches to Vanderbilt and SFA.
This year's event adds an extra level of motivation. The Bearkats will enter the championship as the No. 5 ranked team in the country and have received a bid to the NCAA Championships in six of the program's first seven years. However this season, the NCAA will be granting automatic bids to the champions of the conference tournament for the first time.
“It's exciting that we once again have the opportunity not only to be a part of history but write it as our first ever AQ is up for grabs,” Hagen said. “Ultimately our goal every year is to win another national championship. To do that we have to get there first and this weekend, for the first time we can take our fate out of the committee's hands and punch our ticket automatically.”
The NCAA Women's Bowling Committee will select a field of 10 teams - six automatic qualifying teams and four at-large teams. Teams will be ranked, based on available selection criteria, with the top six being placed in the championship bracket. The remaining four teams will play in opening round matches to determine the final two teams that will compete in the championship. Selections for the 2018 National Collegiate Women's Bowling Championship will be announced on Wednesday, March 28, 2018 via web stream on NCAA.com. The 2018 championship will take place at Tropicana Lanes in Clayton, Mo., from April 12-14.
