SINKING SPRING, Pa. -- Kutztown rode the momentum of its highest-scoring match of the year into the best-of-seven bracket matches where it defeated Molloy, 4-1, Sunday, to finish third at the Golden Bear Invite.

The Golden Bears (13-6) entered the day in third place following Saturday's traditional matches and managed to reach the third-place match despite up-and-down performances in Baker format play.

KU fell to Morgan State 858-791 to begin the day, but bounced back with a 933-818 win over Caldwell in its second match. Alyssa Blood (Birdsboro, Pa./Daniel Boone), Megan Hanaway (Forked River, N.J./Lacey Township), Meghan Ripley (Bel Air, Md./Fallston), Chloe Sromovski (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./G.A.R. Memorial) and Madison Brenneman (York, Pa./Central York) made up the lineup that got the Bears in the win column. They started and finished strong against Caldwell with a 191 opening game and match-high 218 closing game.

Coppin State dealt Kutztown its second loss of the day by an 801-776 score, before the Maroon and Gold recovered with its best performance of the year in the final seeding match against Felician.

Blood, Ripley, Hanaway and Brenneman were joined by Sydney Snyder (Morrisville, Pa./Conwell-Egan Catholic). The group combined for a pair of 200+ games and just missed out on two more. They topped 1000 pins for the match and needed almost every one of them to hold off the Golden Falcons, 1012-985. KU produced a match-high 224 in game one and followed that up with a 214 in game three, a 194 in game four and a 198 in game five.

In the third-place match, Molloy jumped out to a 1-0 lead with a seven-pin victory, 174-167, but it was all Golden Bears from there. Kutztown withstood the pressure of close scores, emerging with a 178-158 win in game two and a tight two-pin victory in game three, 179-177, to take the series lead. The last two games were decided by a combined 23 pins, but both went to the hosts. KU won game four, 170-157, and closed out the match with a 168-158 triumph.

Mount St. Mary's defeated Felician, 4-1, to win the team title, while Fairleigh Dickinson downed Mercyhurst, 4-2, to complete the top five in the standings.

Kutztown will have an extended layoff of almost a month from competition before traveling to Baltimore, Md., for the Coppin State Lady Eagles Invitational Nov. 18-19.