HARAHAN, La. – After three full days of competition inside the Colonial Lanes in Harahan, Louisiana, to kick off its 2019-20 campaign, the Lincoln Memorial University women's bowling team earned an eighth place finish at the seventh annual Allstate Sugar Bowl Collegiate Invitational. The Lady Railsplitters, who earned the No. 5 seed following Friday and Saturday's Baker and traditional team match total pinfall play, struggled during Sunday's best 4-of-7 Baker bracket matches, going 0-3 against three top-15 teams.
 
"We struggled to execute with consistency all day and the end product was one of our worst Sunday performances in our program's short history," LMU Director of Bowling and Head Women's Bowling Coach Joseph Slowinski said. "We simply could not put back-to-back shots on line. In the end it will make us better as it will serve as a catalyst for more focused training sessions over the next two weeks."
 
Among a highly-competitive 16-team tournament field, one that featured three of the top five teams in the nation, five of the top 10 and nine of the top 20, LMU went 5-8 and totaled 12,007 pins. Finishing one spot ahead of reigning national champion Stephen F. Austin, the Lady Railsplitters, who are ranked No. 13 in the country according to the National Tenpin Coaches Association (NTCA) Preseason Top 25, could not upend seventh-ranked and sixth-seeded Maryland-Eastern Shore, No. 8 and seventh-seeded North Carolina A&T, or 14th-ranked and tournament host Tulane in bracket play.
 
"We need to find a way to introduce some early-morning training sessions into our weekly routine," added coach Slowinski. "That will help us perform better in bracket match play, which traditionally starts early on Sundays. Sundays have been an Achilles' heel for us, and we need to figure out a solution quickly. Our good bowling over the weekend was great but our weekend was mediocre at best."
 
For her performance Saturday, senior Mary-Kate Kersting was named 2019 Allstate Sugar Bowl Collegiate Invitational MVP and landed a spot on the all-tournament team. She becomes the first Lady Railsplitter to be tabbed tournament MVP in program history and is just the fifth LMU bowler to earn a major all-tournament team honor.
 
Kersting dominated in a field consisting of some of the best bowlers in the nation, finishing Saturday's traditional team matches as the top individual out of 108 total bowlers. Averaging a game score of 226.4 across the five team matches, Kersting knocked down 1,132 total pins and registered at least a 212 in four of those contests. Owning a 66 percent strike percentage (39-of-59) on the day, she recorded a double-strike percentage of 77 (27-of-41). Kersting rolled a game-high score of 267 in the Lady Railsplitters' upset of No. 8 North Carolina A&T, bowled a 245 against fifth-ranked Sam Houston State and claimed a 232 in the win over Tusculum.
 
Trailing 3-0 to No. 7 Maryland-Eastern Shore in the opening round of bracket play, LMU pulled out a 204-161 game four win but could not keep the momentum going as the Hawks took the fifth, 201-181, to claim the match 4-1.
 
Facing No. 8 North Carolina A&T for the second-straight day, the Lady Railsplitters jumped out to a 1-0 lead after taking game one, 175-164. However, the Aggies edged LMU by seven pins in game two (187-180) and won the following three games for the 4-1 victory.
 
In their final match of the weekend the Lady Railsplitters were swept 4-0 by 10th-seeded Tulane, who went 3-0 Sunday to earn seventh place.
 
"Today was bittersweet, it was a learning curve that showed us what we need to work on," commented senior Marisol Dodson. "It will push us to get better on the lanes and help us have a better finish the rest of the semester. It's only up from here."
 
Top-seeded Sam Houston State took home the tournament title after defeating top-ranked and second-seeded Vanderbilt 4-2 in the championship match. Maryland-Eastern Shore earned third place with a 4-1 triumph over 17th-ranked and fourth-seeded Louisiana Tech, who finished fourth.
 
Up Next…
The Lady Railsplitters have three weeks off before returning to tournament action Friday-Sunday, Nov. 8-10 at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater's Warhawk Classic, held inside Bowl-A-Vard Lanes in Madison, Wisconsin.
 
How to Follow
Stay tuned to LMURailsplitters.com, as well as LMU's social media platforms - @LMURailsplitter on Twitter, @LMURailsplitters on Facebook and @lmurailsplitters on Instagram, for complete coverage of Lady Railsplitter bowling throughout the 2019-20 season.