GREENSBORO, N.C. – Following two full days of competition, the Lincoln Memorial University women's bowling team remains in eighth place among a highly-talented 12-team tournament field at the inaugural Vernell Stallings Women's Bowling Invitational in Greensboro, North Carolina. The Lady Railsplitters (17-19) earned two traditional team match victories Saturday and collected 4,626 more pins to bring their pinfall total to 9,222.
 
With one traditional team match still to be bowled first thing Sunday morning, LMU sits 376 pins from seventh-place Prairie View A&M (9,598). After dropping their first three matches of the day, the 13th-ranked Lady Railsplitters closed out Saturday with wins over receiving-votes Prairie View A&M and Howard.
 
"Today was a roller coaster," commented Director of Bowling and Women's Head Coach Joseph Slowinski. "We opened the day with an exciting match versus No. 7 Maryland-Eastern Shore, which went down to the anchor bowlers' 10th frame. I was very proud of our performance throughout the match as we responded when pushed and competed throughout. Competitive matches help prepare the team to be better as the season progresses."
 
"In our middle matches we lost focus and our bowling quality suffered," continued coach Slowinski. "We are working to resolve these lapses in focus. It has hurt us perform at a level we expect."
 
Tournament host and eighth-ranked North Carolina A&T leads the tournament field, which features seven of the nation's top 21 teams, with a pinfall total of 10,314, while No. 21 Mount St. Mary's is in second place with 10,081 pins. Seventh-ranked Maryland-Eastern Shore is third with a 9,948 pinfall total, followed by No. 19 UAB (9,825), 17th-ranked Louisiana Tech (9,788) and No. 15 Delaware State (9,604).
 
"The team responded well with two wins to finish the day," Slowinski added. "Setbacks from underperforming are simply opportunities to address areas of weakness."
 
In its Saturday opener, LMU took seventh-ranked Maryland-Eastern Shore to the wire before being edged by a mere seven pins, 963-956. Senior Tyra Sanchez provided a game of 211 and the Lady Railsplitters got a 197 from freshman Sofia Colon and a 191 from junior Justine Brookover. With a strike percentage of 55, Sanchez was 67 percent on Baker double strikes, while Colon and senior Marisol Dodson both filled 90 percent of their frames and were 50 percent on Baker double strikes.
 
Perhaps suffering from a bit of a hangover of the tightly-contested match with Maryland-Eastern Shore, LMU was only able to score an 852 against Coppin State, who posted 878 pins. Behind Brookover's 213 game, the Lady Railsplitters got more strong bowling from Sanchez, who went 50 percent on strikes and 60 percent on Baker double strikes.
 
Mary-Kate Kersting was outstanding in a 952-922 loss to fellow East Coast Conference member Tusculum. The senior bowled a day-high 253 game as she held a 72 strike percentage, was 86 percent on double strikes and owned a 100 fill frame percentage. Dodson registered a Baker double-strike percentage of 67 in the match.
 
Taking on receiving-votes Prairie View A&M, LMU racked up 944 pins to earn a 944-929 win. Colon led the way for the Lady Railsplitters, rolling a 226 as Kersting recorded a game of 212. Kersting held a strike percentage of 55 in the match and was 50 percent on Baker double strikes, not to mention securing a 91 fill frame percentage. Freshmen Colon and Jada Bassette also performed well in the affair with Colon holding a 55 strike percentage and a 60 Baker double strike percentage, and Bassette going 67 percent on Baker double strikes.
 
Wrapping up the day with a 50-pin, 952-902 triumph over Howard, LMU got a 213 game from Sanchez, a 195 from Dodson and a 190 from Kersting. Bassette, Kersting and Colon each tallied a Baker double-strike percentage of 50, while Dodson claimed a strike percentage of 55 and Kersting a 58 strike percentage.
 
Among 72 total bowlers Kersting sits in 19th place after averaging a game score of 201.0 in Saturday's five traditional team matches and totaling 1,005 pins. Dodson is in 35th place with a pinfall total of 909 and a 181.8 game average. Sanchez (184.0/game) and Colon (183.5/game) are in 45th and 46th place, respectively, after picking up 736 and 734 total pins.
 
Mount St. Mary's Tamera Stanton (1,189) and Rebecca Dodson (1,129) lead all bowlers with impressive game averages of 237.8 and 225.8, respectively. UAB's Taylor Russell is in third place with a 225.2 game average and 1,126 pinfall total.
 
Up Next…
The Lady Railsplitters take on 19th-ranked UAB in the sixth and final traditional team match Sunday morning at 8:25 a.m. A Vernell Stallings Women's Bowling Invitational champion will be crowned Sunday afternoon following two rounds of best 4-of-7 Baker match bracket play, which is set to start at 9:55 a.m. Seeding for Sunday's bracket play will be based on pinfall total from Friday's Baker matches and the traditional team matches.
 
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.