MILLSBORO, Del. — After 25 baker games in the first day at the Hawk Classic, the Lincoln Memorial University women's bowling team sits in seventh place out of 17 teams with 4,972 pins.
 
The No. 14 Lady Railsplitters are 30 pins behind fourth-place, No. 10-ranked North Carolina A&T and trail second-place, No. 11-ranked Tulane University by 70 pins, heading into five traditional matches Saturday.
 
"We pride ourselves on being an outstanding baker team and today we showed our competitiveness against a very strong field," LMU Director of Bowling and Women's Head Coach Joseph Slowinski said. "I am incredibly proud of this team. Sophomore Christine Hansen was unconscious in the anchor role today, and junior Marisol Dodson played a significant role with a major contribution."
 
LMU tallied 146 strikes and struck at a 51.4-percent rate, and at one point, the Lady Railsplitters had 16 consecutive strikes in their 3-2 outing on the lanes.
 
The Lady Railsplitters fell (887-1,082) to No. 9 Fairleigh Dickinson before notching back-to-back wins over No. 22 Kutztown (1,063-958) and No. 20 Duquesne (1,059-955).
 
LMU finished the day with a narrow (963-1,068) loss to No. 1 Vanderbilt and a (970-837) win over Youngstown State.
 
"We need to sustain our focus and work to implement quick lane play adjustments tomorrow to keep the momentum moving forward," Slowinski said. "We want to go into Sunday with a chance to win this tournament."