MADISON, Wis. – Juniors Justine Brookover and Tyra Sanchez were named to the all-tournament team and the Lincoln Memorial University women's bowling team claimed a third-place finish at the 2019 Warhawk Classic in Madison, Wisconsin. The Lady Railsplitters claimed a pair of match victories Sunday including an upset of 10th-ranked and tournament host the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater inside Bowl-A-Vard Lanes, closing out the weekend with an 8-5 record and tallying the highest pinfall total (12,688) of any program in the 12-team field.
 
"I am extremely proud of our effort today," Head Coach and Director of Bowling Joseph Slowinski said. "The team committed more to process and we saw a significant improvement in performance. This was revealed early in the day as we made an effort in the opening match to make a run at the No. 1 qualifying spot and fell just short."
 
Eighteenth-ranked Maryville University (Mo.) captured the Warhawk Classic title, defeating 12th-ranked Central Missouri 4-0 in the championship match.
 
LMU knocked off No. 10 Wisconsin-Whitewater in the third/fourth-place match during the second round of best 4-of-7 Baker match bracket play after being upended 4-2 by third-seeded and No. 12 Central Missouri in the opening round. In Sunday morning's sixth and final traditional team match of the weekend, the Lady Railsplitters gave their best effort to earn the top seed for bracket play with a 986-772 win over Aurora University. However, LMU was a mere 24 pins off of top-seeded No. 18 Maryville University (Mo.).
 
"Our match against No. 12 Central Missouri went back and forth," commented coach Slowinski. "After getting to 2-2, we had some key mistakes that opened the door for them. We rebounded and stepped up big versus nationally-ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater with an outstanding performance over the entire match."
 
Among a tournament field that featured four of the nation's top 20 teams and 84 total bowlers, Brookover and Sanchez turned in a pair of top-five individual placements. Brookover averaged a game score of 198.83 across the six traditional team matches and totaled 1,193 pins to finish fourth, while Sanchez placed fifth with a 198.0 game average and 1,188 pinfall total. The pair were not the only LMU bowlers to finish within the top 15 in the individual standings as seniors Marisol Dodson and Mary-Kate Kersting placed 13th and 15th, respectively. Dodson owned a 190.67 game average with a pinfall total of 1,144 and Kersting recorded a 1,118 pinfall total averaging 186.33 per game.
 
Maryville University (Mo.)'s took home the individual title and tournament MVP honors after earning 1,263 total pins and averaging a 210.5, while Wisconsin-Whitewater's Taylor Purget (1,236/206.0 avg.) earned runner-up honors and Central Missouri's Katey Furze (1,213/202.17) placed third.
 
In the Lady Railsplitters' morning win over Aurora University, LMU got a 217 game from Sanchez, not to mention a 216 from Dodson and a 204 from freshman Jada Bassette.
 
Against 12th-ranked Central Missouri, LMU jumped out to a 1-0 lead thanks to a 192-182 game one win. However, the Jennies would win both of the following two games, 184-180 and 197-190 respectively, before the Lady Railsplitters evened up the match at 2-2 with a 240-225 game four triumph. LMU was only able to record game scores of 172 and 177 in the next two games as No. 12 Central Missouri rolled 185 and 193 games to secure the match.
 
Bassette was outstanding in the Lady Railsplitters' upset of 10th-ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater with seven strikes and an 83.3 (5-of-6) Baker double-strike percentage. Dodson was also solid in the match, going 11-for-18 (61%) on strikes and 4-for-6 (67%) on Baker double strikes. LMU rebounded from a 177-168 opening game by winning games 2-4 (192-145, 225-180, 205-178) to take a 3-1 advantage in the match. After dropping game five 212-192, the Lady Railsplitters clinched the match with 205-165 game six win.
 
Up Next…
The Lady Railsplitters continue their three-tournament November next weekend with a trip to Greensboro, North Carolina, for North Carolina A&T's Vernell Stallings Women's Bowling Invitational Friday-Sunday, Nov. 15-17 at the AMF All Star Lanes.
 
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.