HACKENSACK, N.J. – The Kutztown University women's bowling team entered the East Coast Conference Championships with a second seed and a first round bye, and stretched its two mega match competitions to three games on Saturday, falling to third seeded Molloy, 2-1, before settling in and claiming a 2-1 win to eliminate fourth-seeded Adelphi on the second of three days at Hackensack's Bowler City.

The Golden Bears (57-29 regular season), who sit as the 25th-best team in March's National Tenpin Coaches Association polls, faced off against a pair of teams that had to battle in Friday's qualifying competition to advance in the newly formatted conference tournament. After its performance today, the squad places itself in the East Coast Conference's final three teams that will battle it out on Championship Sunday for the chance to secure the conference's automatic berth to the NCAA Women's Bowling Championships.

Molloy, winners of six of its last seven, including all three baker matches in the opening day, continued its hot stretch with a 1,000 pin game to claim the traditional game and a 1-0 lead. Kutztown, not backing down from a challenge, won each of its five individual games in the five-game baker series to tie things at one and send the contest to the winner-take-all, best-of-seven series. After tying the first game at 203, Molloy snagged the next two games, and while the Golden Bears would counter with a 232 pin fourth game, a strong final two games from Molloy sealed the deal, 4.5-1.5, sending Kutztown to an elimination match against Adelphi, who fell to top-seeded Bryant earlier in the day.

The Panthers responded first in traditional play, securing a 98-pin win to take the first point and put Kutztown's backs against the wall. The team responded with a 1013-947 baker victory to knot things up and send things to a pivotal baker best-of-seven battle. The high-scoring Golden Bears posted three straight wins with 200+ pins in each, putting its opponents at the brink of elimination. Adelphi responded with a pair of close victories in games four and five, but it was a 217-214 sixth game that gave KU a 4-2 victory and clinched one of three spots on championship Sunday.

Head coach Angela Reynolds' lineup featured its four All-Conference honorees in Rookie of the Year First Teamer Madilyn Bogovic (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cedar Cliff), Second Teamer Kamryn Brenneman (York, Pa./Central York), and Third Team keglers Isabella Hopper (Mifflinville, Pa./Berwick) and Sydney Snyder (Morrisville, Pa./Conwell-Egan Catholic), as well as senior Shelby Wunch (Easton, Md./Easton), all of whom provided key contributions down the stretch.

Prior to Saturday's competition, junior bowler Natalie Conrad (Wyoming, Pa./Dallas) was honored with the conference's Elite 20 Award, given to the student-athlete with the highest GPA at the championship site. The junior from Wyoming, Pa., holds a 3.97 grade point average as an elementary education major at Kutztown University.

Kutztown is guaranteed to compete in at least one more mega match on Sunday, a rematch with third-seeded Molloy, which will take place at 8:25 a.m. at Hackensack's Bowler City. In order to defend its conference crown and claim the ECC's automatic bid to the NCAA Bowling Championships, the Golden Bears would need to win out, starting with its battle with the Lions, and follow a victory up with two wins – a mega match and an if necessary contest – over top-seeded Bryant in the double elimination bracket.