FREDERICK, Md. -- Kutztown battled to the end against nationally-ranked Mount St. Mary's in the championship match of the Mount Shootout, Sunday. Though the Golden Bears came up a bit short of the title, it did little to put a damper on another successful weekend.
Following a 4-1 record in traditional play, Saturday, the Bears got back to work with Baker play Sunday morning.
Head coach
Angela Reynolds went with a lineup of
Ashley Fister (Northumberland, Pa./Shikellamy),
Lindsey Gotwalt (Hanover, Md./Meade),
Rachel Wagner (Cheektowaga, N.Y./Depew),
Madison Lund (Reading, Pa./Muhlenberg) and
Chloe Sromovski (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./G.A.R. Memorial) in KU's (13-7) first three matches and they produced a 2-1 record with wins over Coppin State and Chestnut Hill.
In the opener against Coppin State, Kutztown rolled three games in the 170s with a high of 174 in the first game. The result was an 848-747 victory.
Mount St. Mary's, which has had the Golden Bears' number to date at early season tournaments, showed how strong of a team it has this year with an impressive 1144 pin total in an 1144-867 win. The Mount registered three games over 230, with a high of 254, and missed out on five 200+ games by one pin in the second game.
Kutztown went down to the wire with Chestnut Hill, entering the final game 20 pins back of the Griffins. The team of Fister, Gotwalt, Wagner, Lund and Sromovski stepped up, though, rolling a match-high 190 to secure the game win by 49 pins (190-141) and the match by 29, 792-763.
Samantha Jaeger (Lockport, N.Y./Lockport) joined the lineup beginning with the Howard match. The Maroon and Gold outscored the Bison in each of the first four games, taking control with a 243 --their best of the day-- in the fourth game. Howard gained a few pins back in the fifth, but it wasn't nearly enough as KU won 937-844 and cemented its top two spot in the team standings to get one final shot at Mount St. Mary's.
The Mount came into the weekend ranked 13th in the NTCA National Poll and their early season performances indicate they could be on the rise. Kutztown couldn't overcome more impressive bowling from the hosts as they fell into an 87-pin hole right off the bat after a 225-138 loss in game one. Mount St. Mary's rolled a 224 in game two padding its lead by another 53 pins.
An uncharacteristically poor score of 147 by Mount St. Mary's in game three allowed KU to gain 48 pins back, but The Mount bounced back with back-to-back 200+ games to finish off a 1020-839 victory.
Rachel Wagner (Cheektowaga, N.Y./Depew) was named to the all-tournament team after her 190.4 traditional average ranked third overall Saturday. Sromovski, last week's ECC Rookie of the Week, just missed a spot on the team in sixth (180.0).
Kutztown will be in action for the third weekend in a row when it takes part in the one-day Sacred Heart University Bowl for the Cure next Saturday.
