SMYRNA, Tenn. – The 11th-ranked Kutztown University women's bowling team entered its most pivotal weekend of the season on Friday. It competed at Vanderbilt's Music City Classic, where 19 of the top 20 teams in the country took to the lanes.
 
The Golden Bears (68-43) need to do well over the three-day invitational in order to vie for one of the few remaining seeds in the NCAA National Championships in April. The top eight teams qualify for nationals; so competing at the Music City Classic against the best teams in the country would only improve their quality of competition.
 
The team will have to work through some adversity moving forward, however, as Kutztown dropped all five of its matches on Friday. Despite falling to five impressive teams, including three of the top eight ranked teams, Kutztown's scores were slightly under its season average.
 
There is little worry moving forward for Kutztown; just the sudden urgency of needing to compete well on Saturday.
 
"This was not a very good day for us," head coach Joseph Ambrose said. "We have a lot of work to do before Saturday, but we will make adjustments and try to turn things around. We are much better than we played today and we will prove that during the remainder of this elite event."
 
Kutztown ranks 21st of 29 teams through the first day of competition. It knocked down 4,258 total pins through five matches, 692 pins behind leader Fairleigh Dickinson at 4,950. KU fell to Tulane (705-749), fifth-ranked Central Missouri (656-744), eighth-ranked Vanderbilt (709-815), Prairie View A&M (665-715), and sixth-ranked Stephen F. Austin (730-759).
 
As per NCAA rules, Friday's matches were quad-baker style. Saturday will be played as traditional matches, and Sunday's bracket matches will be seeded by total pins and played as best-of-seven baker matches.