Three HBCU teams get bids for NCAA
Women's Bowling Championship
March 29, 2006
INDIANAPOLIS -- The eight-team field competing
for the third annual National Collegiate Women's
Bowling Championship was announced today by
the NCAA Women’s Bowling Committee.
The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority
and Prairie View A&M University will co-host
the championship, which will be held April
13-15 at Emerald Bowl in Houston, Texas.
The field includes Alabama
A&M University,
Bethune-Cookman College, Central Missouri State
University, Fairleigh Dickinson University
- Metropolitan Campus, University
of Maryland-Eastern Shore, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, New
Jersey City University and Vanderbilt University.
All teams were selected at large.
Alabama A&M finished the regular season
with a 30-15-2 overall record in head-to-head
matchups, mostly against one of the toughest
slates in the nation. The Lady Bulldogs have
battled nearly all of the eight teams invited
to the national tournament. After a disappointing
loss in the SWAC semifinals, the team bounced
back to finish third, but carried that momentum
into the final two tournaments of the regular
season. It was a third place finish at the
Holiday Collegiate and a fourth place finish
at the Music City Classic that proved the Lady
Bulldogs were among the elite teams in the
nation.
"Obviously we are very excited," Alabama
A&M head coach Jeff McCorvey said. "The
team has worked very hard over the course of
the season and it's nice to see that hard work
pay off. We have a lot of confidence heading
to this tournament. We have played very well
against the top teams in the nation this season,
and I am sure we will represent both Alabama
A&M and the SWAC very well."
B-CC finished third in this year’s MEAC Tournament, after winning the event a year
ago. The Lady Wildcats ranked second in the
MEAC Southern Division for the entire season
and were knocked out of the MEAC Women’s
Bowling Tournament by runner-up Morgan State.
“I think this is wonderful for the program
and the girls,” states B-CC first year
head coach Jerry Norris. “This is a
reflection of their dedication and hard work
all year long.
UMES won its second MEAC title this season
defeating Morgan State 639 pins to 527 pins
in the final.
This marks the Lady Hawks third straight trip
to the NCAA Championship and the Lady Wildcats
second straight trip. UMES lost in the second
round of the 2005 NCAA Championship to Central
Missouri State. B-CC finished fourth at last
year’s NCAA Championship losing to Central
Missouri State 4-3. The Lady Hawks were knocked
out in the second round of the 2004 Championship
by New Jersey City College 4-0. UMES bowled
the only perfect 300 baker game in NCAA history
in 2003.
"It's the best feeling, this is what
we worked so hard for all season long," UMES
head coach Sharon Brummell told the media immediately
after she got the phone call confirming the
Lady Hawks' bid.
The Hawks, continually ranked in the top eight
in the nation this year and boasting a resume
of victories over the country's top teams,
were still a little worried. "I was worried," said
Brummell. "We know we bowled great, we
started a little shaky but picked it up and
have been bowling great. We knew we had defeated
all of the top teams this year head-to-head
but our record wasn't outstanding." That
record, a solid 74-37 isn't a shabby one, but
Brummell was afraid that some teams with better
records, but fewer matches bowled, might be
chosen, even though their strength of schedule
wasn't as good as the Hawks.
The qualifying round, which determines a team’s
seed based on total pin fall, will have each
team bowling four five-person regular team
games and Baker matches completed in four best-of-five-game
Baker sets. The fourth Baker set will serve
as the position round. The pin fall from the
position round will serve as the tie-breaker.
The Baker format allows five team members to
follow each other in order, each bowling a
complete frame until a complete (10-frame)
game is bowled.
Based on the qualifying round, teams are placed
in a double-elimination bracket. Teams compete
against each other in a best-of-seven Baker-style
bowling competition. Ties within a Baker game
will be decided by a ninth and 10th frame roll
off.
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