Red Wolves Bowling Competes in NCAA Tournament

CANTON, Mich. – The Arkansas State University Red Wolves women’s bowling team earned the sixth seed after the first day of competition at the NCAA Bowling Tournament, being held at Super Bowl Lanes in Canton, Mich.

The Red Wolves started out strong by winning its first two matches on the day, but lost its next two matches to finish 2-2 after the first block of the seeding rounds.   ASU went 1-2 in the second block of the seeding round to finish 3-4 overall on the day.  The Red Wolves will play the third-seeded Sam Houston State Bearkats at 11:40 a.m. (ET).  All the matches Friday will be streamed live on www.NCAA.com.

“I felt like we had a decent day, but could have done some things better,” ASU bowling coach Justin Kostick said.  “We had to play some various lineups trying to find the right ones.  I was very proud of Stephanie and Tori stepping up to help the team.”

A-State faced Vanderbilt in the first match and squeaked out a 12-pin victory 962-950.  Senior Rachael Gittings led the way for the Red Wolves with a 241 in the match and Kalynn Carl contributed a strong effort with a 200 in the match.

ASU stayed hot in its second match of the day against Central Missouri.  The Red Wolves defeated the Jennies 1,074-967 as Gittings led the way again with a 258.  Freshman Stephanie Mims had a great performance with a score of 225, while sophomore Sarah Lokker and junior Amanda Labossiere both turned in scores of 203 to help lead A-State to victory.

Arkansas State squared off against Sam Houston State in its third match of the day and fell to the Bearkats by a score of 994-926.  Gittings led the Red Wolves once again with a 222 score and Carl recorded another strong performance with a 203.

The Red Wolves faced two-time defending champion Maryland-Eastern Shore in its fourth match of the day.  UMES defeated A-State 977-948 and Gittings led the Red Wolves with a score of 255.  Lokker chipped in with a 190 for the second highest score of the match for ASU.

A-State started off the second block of the seeding round with a 1004-970 loss to Fairleigh Dickinson.  Labossiere led the Red Wolves with a 213 and Carl chipped in with a 203.

ASU took on Wisconsin-Whitewater in its second match of the second block during the seeding round.  The Red Wolves defeated the Warhawks 948-859 in a back-and-forth match that saw ASU take over late.  Labossiere and Carl both registered a score of 202 to lead A-State.

Arkansas State took on Nebraska in its final match of the day in what proved to be an epic match.  ASU took an early lead before Nebraska came back to get within striking distance.  Both teams traded punches until the end of the match, but the Cornhuskers came out on top by a score of 1,030-1,022.  Labossiere registered the top score of 224, while Tori Henson had a 209 and Gittings recorded a 202.

Nebraska was able to grab the number one seed behind a 5-2 record and winning a tiebreaker on total pinfall over two other teams with 5-2 records, Fairleigh Dickinson and Sam Houston State.

Gittings finished third in the individual standings and led the Red Wolves with a 216.9 average.  Labossiere was second on the team with a 197.7 average, while Lokker was third on the team with a 190 average.