Nebraska-Omaha upsets Wichita State

WATCH: Coverage of the championship matches

LAS VEGAS -
The University of Nebraska-Omaha men upset top-seed Wichita State University to win the Glenn Carlson Las Vegas Invitational at the South Point Bowling Center on Tuesday.

The best-of-three championship match came down to final frames as the Mavs sealed the victory with clutch strikes in the eighth, ninth and first shot in the 10th frame. Wichita anchor Josh Blanchard left the door open with a 4-9 split in the Shockers' last frame. Nebraska-Omaha took the opening game, 237-192, the Shockers bounced back with a 218-174 win, and the Mavs took the finale, 213-183.

Nebraska-Omaha entered the single-elimination match-play bracket in the No. 10 spot and rolled past Missouri Baptist (2-1), Southern Illinois-Edwardsville (2-0) and in-state rival Nebraska-Lincoln (2-1) on the way to the showdown with the Shockers.

Wichita State, which also finished second at this weekend's Sam's Town Collegiate Shoot Out, cruised past the University of Arizona (2-0), Calumet College (2-0) and Pikeville College-C (2-0) on the way to the final.

On the women's side, No. 7 Pikeville-B downed No. 8 University of California-Davis, 212-201 and 165-150, to claim the top spot.

Pikeville-B earned its way into the championship match with wins over Wichita State (2-1) and Calumet College (2-0), while UC-Davis upset top-seed Pikeville-A (2-1) and West Texas A&M (2.5-0.5). Pikeville A, which won the women's side of the Sam's Town Collegiate Shoot Out, also pulled away at the Las Vegas Invitational and led No. 2 Wichita by 677 pins heading into the match-play portion of the event before losing.

After nine traditional games, the top 16 men's teams and top eight women's teams advanced to single-elimination Baker match-play brackets. The field included 45 men's teams and 18 women's squads.

Individually, Wichita State's Blanchard paced the men's field with a 2,059 total for nine games, an average of 228.7. He was followed by Arizona State-Haugen's Brian Makan (2,008), University of Nebraska-Omaha's Nick Riedler (1,963), Missouri Baptist's Mike Wedemeire (1,940) and Pikeville College's Chris Jones (1,931).

For the women, Pikeville College-A grabbed five of the top six spots. Becky Sulligan led the way with a 1,948 nine-game total, a 216.4 average, and was followed by Bears teammate Kim Yioulos (1,909), Fresno State's Jasmine Coleman (1,833) Pikeville's Sarah Germano (1,823), Jennifer Wright (1,756) and Nicole Burke was sixth with 1,715.