Kats split two matches at NCAA Regional

ARLINGTON – The Sam Houston bowlers survived an elimination match on Friday afternoon to advance on day 1 of the NCAA Regional at the ITRC in Arlington.

The Bearkats lost a hard fought match in the morning session against Louisiana Tech, 2-0. Four Kats topped 200 with Denise Blankenzee leading the way with a 236. Taylor Lucas bowled a 229, followed by Kaia Gray with a 219 and Elise Chambers who had a 215. As a team Sam Houston posted a 1088. Louisiana Tech however had a huge 1141 game to take the first game of the match.

Again in the team baker set, the Kats were strong. They bowled a 1070 and carried a 27 pin lead into the final game. But, once again, La Tech made just enough shots and finished with a 1082 to take the match.

"I thought we really bowled well this morning," said head coach Brad Hagen. "Any time you go out and put up the scores we did you can't get down about it. We both made some good shots and the difference between us came down to just a few shots."

In the afternoon elimination match, the Kats got off to a slow start against PVU, before beating the Panthers by 128 pins in the traditional team match. Blankenzee led the way for Sam Houston with a 234. Bea Hernandez bowled a 215 and Chambers was one pin back with a 214.

In the team baker the Kats got down by 52 pins after the first game, and fought back to take a one-pin lead heading to the fifth and final game. They responded with a 213-153 win to take the match.

The Kats will now face Louisiana Tech on Saturday morning in another elimination match at 9 a.m. The winner will face No. 1 seed McKendree at 3 p.m. for a trip to the NCAA Finals in Las Vegas.

Kats split two matches at NCAA Regional

Players Mentioned

Denise Blankenzee

Elise Chambers

Kaia Gray

Bea Hernandez

Taylor Lucas

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