SMYRNA, Tenn. – The Lincoln Memorial University women's bowling team will compete in the Music City Classic, hosted by No. 5 Vanderbilt, this weekend.

The Music City Classic, which begins Friday at the Smyrna Bowling Center, will feature the majority of the nation's top-25 teams in the field of 35, including No. 1 McKendree, No. 3 Arkansas State, No. 4 Sam Houston State, No. 5 Vanderbilt, No. 6 Fairleigh Dickinson, No. 7 Stephan F. Austin, No. 8 Maryland Eastern Shore, No. 9 Delaware State, No. 10 Central Missouri, No. 11 Sacred Heart, No. 12 Monmouth, No. 13 Wisconsin Whitewater, No. 14 Tulane, No. 15 St. Francis Pa., No. 16 Long Island University Brooklyn, No. 17 Adelphi, No. 18 North Carolina A&T, No. 19 Prairie View, No. 20 Franklin Pierce, No. 22 Alabama Birmingham, No. 23 Youngstown State, No. 25 Valparaiso.

LMU's match schedule for the three-day tournament includes three top-10 opponents and six top-20 opponents in its ten matches during the first two days of competition.

"We scheduled strong tournaments throughout the season for this very reason to act as a catalyst for our bowlers to learn how skilled one must be to become one of the nation's best teams in the future," said Director of Bowling Joseph Slowinski. "Bowling against the best has been a reality all season and now our women are comfortable in competition against anyone." 

LMU has faced top 25 teams in nearly 50 percent of their matches this season.

On Friday, March 17, LMU will bowl five five-game Baker total pin fall matches against Bethune Cookman, No. 9 Delaware State, MT Aloysious, No. 11 Sacred Heart and No. 16 LIU Brooklyn. 

On Saturday March 18, LMU will bowl five traditional team games beginning the day with inter-pool play (match TBD), vs No. 15 St Francis Pa.,  No. 7 Stephen F Austin, No. 5 Vanderbilt and ending with Louisiana Tech.

LMU will have three matches on Sunday, March 19 to be determined by total pin fall over the first two days of competition.

LMU, who sits at 31-67, have improved significantly over the course of the year, defeating three different top-10 schools in 2017.  Nearly 50 percent of their matches have been against top-25 opponents, and the young team has responded well.

"I am very proud of the improvement we have made over the course of our first season," said Slowinski.   "Our young team has become more and more confident and skilled and our performances quality illustrates the strength of our training program."

Each of the six freshman on the team have won an East Coast Conference weekly recognition with five Rookie of the Week awards and one Bowler of the Week honor.

 "Our goal for this weekend is to achieve a consistent level of performance quality while simultaneously being competitive in all of our matches which will have us in the correct competitive mindset going into the East Coast Conference Championship next week," added Slowinski.