ECC CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL

CORAM, N.Y. -- Kutztown University women's bowling rode the roller coaster of emotions as play got underway at the East Coast Conference Championship Friday inside the Coram Country Lanes.

The Golden Bears went 2-3 in Baker format seeding play, with painfully close losses to 25th-ranked Adelphi (955-932) and Bloomfield (883-882), before ending the day with the elation of a 4.5-1.5 best-of-seven victory over Roberts Wesleyan in the first round of elimination play.

KU recovered from a 960-891 defeat against D'Youville in the first round of seeding matches to post back-to-back wins over Molloy and Roberts Wesleyan.

Head coach Angela Reynolds needed to find a spark, and fast, doing so with the lineup of Megan Hanaway (Forked River, N.J./Lacey Township), Eleni Feggulis (South River, N.J./South River), Rachel Wagner (Cheektowaga, N.Y./Depew), Chloe Sromovski (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./G.A.R. Memorial) and Madison Lund (Reading, Pa./Muhlenberg). The Golden Bears (46-39) rolled consecutive 203 games to open against Molloy and went 199, 195, 196 to close out a 996-866 win --their highest match total of the day.

Unsurprisingly, the same lineup took on Roberts Wesleyan. While they didn't go into the 200s, Kutztown just missed in games one and three with matching 199s in a 902-784 win.

The Golden Bears fell into a sizable hole against No. 25 Adelphi, but stormed back with a 205 in game four and their highest individual game of the day, a 228, in game five. Unfortunately, the late comeback bid was not enough, as the Panthers held on by 23 pins.

Kutztown led early against Bloomfield, outscoring the Bears by 37 pins over the first two games. Bloomfield's 224 third game turned the tide in its favor and despite a 172-160 win in the fifth, KU was on the short end of a one-pin defeat.

After the seeding matches were complete, Kutztown ranked sixth with a total of 4,603 pins (184.1 average). That set up a rematch with 11th-seeded Roberts Wesleyan in the first round of double elimination bracket play.

Tension was high as the Golden Bears and Redhawks were even at 1.5 games through three. Kutztown's lineup of Lindsey Gotwalt (Hanover, Md./Meade), Feggulis, Wagner, Sromovski and Lund won the opener 204-185, but game two was dead even at 167. Roberts Wesleyan bounced back to tie it with a 217-191 win in the third, but KU took over from there.

The Golden Bears won game four 162-114 and Roberts had no answer the rest of the way, dropping the fifth, 203-164, and sixth, 200-111. Kutztown moved on in the winners bracket, where it will face third-seeded Mercyhurst in round two of best-of-seven bracket play Saturday morning.

Earlier in the day, Friday, Feggulis was honored with the ECC's Elite 19 Award for having the highest cumulative grade point average (GPA) of all student-athletes competing at the championship site. Feggulis, a junior sport management major from South River, N.J., holds a 4.0 GPA.

Play continues at the ECC Championship, Saturday, with second round matches beginning at 8 a.m. Rounds 2-6 will be contested tomorrow, before wrapping up Sunday.