Collegiate Ticker - Oct. 16, 2019

The Notre Dame College women and the Lincoln Memorial men earned wins last weekend at the Orange and Black Classic.

The women’s division was contested at Poelking Lanes South in Centerville, Ohio, site of the 2019 Intercollegiate Team Championships, while the men’s division was held at Beaver-Vu Bowl in Beavercreek, Ohio.

A total of 25 women’s and 33 men’s varsity teams were on hand to compete in five traditional games and 16 Baker games before the top eight teams in each division advanced to an eight-team best-of-five match-play bracket to determine the champions.

The Pikeville women grabbed the lead on Day 1 with a 147-pin lead over Lourdes after five traditional games, but Day 2 saw Lourdes post the highest 16-game Baker total to edge Pikeville for the top overall seed heading into bracket match play. After sweeping No. 8 Alma in the opening round, Lourdes went the distance with No. 5 Notre Dame College, but it was the Falcons who emerged victorious, defeating the Lourdes, 3-2, to advance to the title match.

Notre Dame’s effort set up a title match with the host school taking on No. 2 Pikeville. The Lady Bears had opened the bracket with a three-game sweep of Lawrence Tech before defeating Urbana, 3-1, in the semifinals to advance to the title match. In the finals, Notre Dame College knocked off Pikeville, 3-1, for their second tournament victory of the season.

Individually, Pikeville dominated the top five as three Lady Bears earned spots on the all-tournament team. Pikeville’s Lauren Piotrowski, who won the individual crown last weekend at the MSC Louisville Collegiate Classic, claimed the top spot with a five-game total of 983, an average of 196.6. She was followed by teammate Brittney Turcotte (978), Lawrence Tech’s Victoria Giardina (977), Concordia’s Mikayla Lancioni (972) and Pikeville’s Stephanie Crider (970).

On the men’s side, Lincoln Memorial used a tournament high game of 1,235 to hold the lead after five traditional games with a total of 5,302. But as many as five teams were in contention to claim the top overall seed during Sunday’s Baker competition and the honor went to Notre Dame College (8,580), which edged Lawrence Tech (8,560).  

In the opening round of bracket play, No. 8 Lourdes played spoiler by upsetting top seed Notre Dame College, 3-2, to advance to the Round of 4 where they faced No. 5 Lincoln Memorial. LMU didn’t waste time in that match, sweeping Lourdes to advance to the championship to face No. 2 Lawrence Tech.

Lawrence Tech, the 2019 men’s runner-up at the Intercollegiate Team Championships, defeated No. 7 Robert Morris-PA (3-1) and No. 6 Wright State (3-2) to advance. The title match saw another fantastic finish as Lincoln Memorial came back from a 2-1 deficit to win Games 4 and 5 to claim the Orange and Black Classic title.

Individually, Lourdes’ Ian Friesner fired a 300 game during Game 2 on the way to earning the top spot with a five-game total of 1,259, an average of 251.8. He was followed by Notre Dame’s Cameron Gonce (1,188), Northern Kentucky’s Joey Stevens (1,134), Lincoln Memorial’s Michael Rachal (1,127) and Notre Dame’s Anthony Doran (1,123).

In other USBC Collegiate action over the weekend:

- At Andy B’s Team Challenge and Baker Invitational, the McKendree men and the Drury women captured both titles in Springfield, Missouri.

- At SWIBC I and II, the Wichita State Shockers swept the men’s and women’s events in Fort Worth, Texas.

- At the Great Lakes Bowling Conference 2 in Rockford, Illinois, the Viterbo women and the Wisconsin-Whitewater men earned conference wins.

- At the Bud Whitman Memorial in Sinking Springs, Pennsylvania, the Duquesne women cruised to victory.

- At the Grapevine Classic in Erie, Pennsylvania, the women of Robert Wesleyan College came away victorious.

- At the Penguin Invitational in Struthers, Ohio, the Youngstown State women captured the title.

For complete results and the full schedule for the 2019-2020 season, click here.