MILLSBORO, Del. — Mary-Kate Kersting and Marisol Dodson were two players highlighted before the start of the Lincoln Memorial University women's bowling season.
 
The junior duo has illustrated exactly why their head coach pinpointed their names.
 
During the Lady Railsplitters' three-day stay at the Warhawk Classic this past weekend, Kersting broke Heather Trapp's 29 traditional-game strike record with one more (30). She also compiled 38 baker strikes for a total of 68 strikes to place herself atop the program's three-year history with one of the prolific striking performances witnessed.
 
"We've had some great performances on the baker side with a lot of strikes, but combined that's one of the best ever," LMU Director of Bowling Joseph Slowinski said. "She's always positive, enthusiastic, never gets down and when she's bowling well, that energy she has naturally it expands and effects everybody so positively.
 
"It's great to see her competing at a higher level because it just helps us all around. It's not just the bowling; it's the whole team dynamic and it's much more when she's bowling. So far, in fact, I think she's bowling nearly every game of the season."
 
In the same tournament, Dodson became the first Lady Railsplitter to surpass the 1,000 career-strike milestone. She has 646 baker strikes and 385 traditional-game strikes for a total of 1,031 so far in her LMU career.
 
It's in these two player's continued improvement that has the No. 14 LMU women in a good place as the Lady Railsplitters head to the Hawk Classic, starting at 9:55 a.m. Friday in Millsboro, Del.
 
"We talked about before the season that MK and Marisol, in particular, were two I'd expect to continue their evolution and growth as players in our program," Slowinski said. "Marisol bowled primarily the entire tournament as well and there were moments she bowled brilliantly. MK has been very consistent from the start of the season and that's great because then we have some depth. Then, we don't have to rely on the top statistical leaders all the time.
 
"In fact, we have more people performing at a higher level that are becoming statistical leaders. That's the goal. If we have five or six people that are bowling at a high level all the time, that puts us at a great position nationally to compete against anybody. The fact we beat No. 5 Arkansas State and No. 1 Vanderbilt back-to-back — that says a lot about the potential of this team."
 
LMU will have a chance to showcase more of that potential during five baker and traditional games on Friday and Saturday, respectively, as the Lady Railsplitters vie with No. 1 Vanderbilt, No. 4 Sam Houston State, Maryland Eastern Shore, No. 10 Tulane, No. 19 LIU Brookyln, Caldwell, Mount St. Mary, St. Francis College Brooklyn and Youngstown State.
 
The Lady Railsplitters will face one other team in the position round on Saturday to gear up for the best-of-7 Championship Sunday, in hopes of finish the first half of their season the right way.   
 
"In back-to-back tournaments, normally we see a higher level of performance because we haven't gotten out of competition flow," Slowinski said. "I expect us to be more consistent than we have been — our scoring pace is higher than it's ever been — and I just want to see our good be better and when the lanes are difficult and challenging to also be a little bit better, and if we can do that, we'll be very competitive this weekend."