NEW CASTLE, Del. -- There were some big individual numbers posted by the 25th-ranked Kutztown University bowling team during Saturday's traditional matches at the Wilmington (Del.) Wildcat Invitational at Bowlerama, but they didn't always come together at the right time as the Golden Bears dropped their first three matches and ultimately fell to eighth in the team standings.

It was a tough start to the day for KU as scores were on the rise. The Golden Bears, with their national ranking, took two good shots from Daemen (N.Y.) and host Wilmington in their first two matches.

Eleni Feggulis (South River, N.J./South River) opened with a 189, but Daemen went over 1,000 pins, while Kutztown suffered its lowest-scoring match of the day in a 1,089-774 defeat.

The Golden Bears (38-29) were much better against the Wildcats, using a 246 from Chloe Sromovski (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./G.A.R. Memorial) and a 202 from Rachel Wagner (Cheektowaga, N.Y./Depew) to lead the way, but it wasn't quite enough as Wilmington held off the Maroon and Gold by 69 pins, 1,004-935.

Bloomfield sent KU to its third straight loss, 916-832, despite Wagner rolling her second straight 200+ game (203).

Kutztown finally grabbed some momentum in its final two matches, which it will need to carry into Sunday's bracket play. Megan Hanaway (Forked River, N.J./Lacey Township) recorded the highest single-game of any Bear Saturday with a 267, while Feggulis (194) and Wagner (191) were in the 190s as KU took down Caldwell 980-878.

Feggulis backed up her game against Caldwell with a team-high 224 in the finale against Molloy. Lindsey Gotwalt (Hanover, Md./Meade) broke into the 200s with a 202 and Wagner completed a strong afternoon with a 178, leading KU to a 936-903 triumph.

Wagner led the team with a 193 average across four games. Feggulis was next at a 183 and Sromovski had a 182.

Wilmington surged from fifth to start the day into the lead by 56 pins over Daemen with a two-day total of 9,651 (193.0 average). Mercyhurst, Caldwell and Molloy are the rest of the top five.

The tournament concludes Sunday with best-of-seven bracket play.