ALTOONA, Pa. - The women's bowling team traveled to Altoona, Pa. to compete in the Red Flash Women's Invitational this weekend hosted by St. Francis. In their opening match on Saturday, they faced ninth-ranked Kutztown University and lost 929-882. Adrian would go on to win their next two matches defeating Penn State-Altoona 877-783 and host team St. Francis University 854-847.
In their fourth match Adrian would face SUNY IT and lose 814-773. After the loss to SUNY IT the team would drop all the way from second to fourth place. "The first and second place teams after qualifying would receive a bye in the first round of the double elimination bracket, so it was crucial for us to have a big last game," said head coach Jody Fetterhoff. "Going into the last game we were 36 pins from second place and 13 pins out of third." In their final match, Adrian would beat Medaille College 859-743 and their score was enough to secure the second-seed, earning them a first-round bye in Sunday's double elimination bracket.
Freshman Emily Gesell led the way for Adrian averaging a 192 on the day earning her a third-place finish, which is the highest individual finish in program history. Her scores would also be enough to land her a spot on the All-Tournament. Sophomore Kristen Marcis also had a strong showing averaging 174.2 for the tournament and finishing ninth overall. "Our lefties, Emily and Kristen, worked really well together and had a nice line to the pocket all day."
Sunday's competition placed all six teams into a double-elimination bracket with first place Kutztown and second place Adrian receiving byes in the first round. Adrian would face the winner between St. Francis and Penn State-Altoona. Host team St. Francis went down 3-1, but would come back to defeat Penn State-Altoona in seven games. In a back-and-forth match going to seven games, St. Francis would end up knocking Adrian into the loser's bracket (162-158, 154-169, 177-139, 146-172, 122-174, 192-155, 170-199).
Adrian would run through the loser's bracket defeating SUNY IT 4.5-1.5 (145-139, 169-144, 195-183, 177-177, 159-167, 184-161) and Medaille College 4-2 (170-149, 151-147, 177-195, 140-175, 163-140, 167-158). In the final match, Adrian would face Kutztown after they were knocked into the loser's bracket with a loss to St. Francis. Adrian started off strong winning the first game 197-161, but Kutztown would go on to win the next three games (130-205, 127-204, 160-192). Adrian extended the match by winning game five, 165-159, but Kutztown came back in game six to defeat the Lady Bulldogs, 127-174. Adrian would finish third for the tournament and end with a record of 5-4 for the weekend.
"It was a good tournament for us," said Fetterhoff. "It was very competitive and we had different bowlers lead each day. We struggled a little with our spare shooting and you can't afford to do that against good teams."
The team will have about a month off until their next tournament in Cincinnati, Ohio on Jan. 15-16.
