MADISON, Wis. – Despite having a three-week break from competition, the Lincoln Memorial University women's bowling team showed no signs of rust Friday at the 2019 Warhawk Classic inside Bowl-A-Vard Lanes in Madison, Wisconsin. The Lady Railsplitters lead the three-day, 12-team tournament hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater after totaling 4,696 pins in five Baker matches on day one.
 
Among a tournament field that features four of the nation's top 20 teams, 13th-ranked LMU holds a 56-pin lead in the standings. The Lady Railsplitters (8-10) went 3-2 in Friday's opening Baker matches, picking up victories over Upper Iowa (1,065-851), Dominican University (981-700) and North Central College (922-773) while averaging a 187.8 game score.
 
Maryville University, who is ranked 18th nationally, is in second place with 4,640 total pins, while Valparaiso is third with a pinfall total of 4,534 and No. 12 Central Missouri fourth with a 4,510 pinfall total. Both Valparaiso and 12th-ranked Central Missouri went a perfect 5-0 Friday.
 
"It is always nice to leave the lanes in first place after day one," director of bowling and women's head coach Joe Slowinski said. "I am extremely proud of the quality of our bowling today. It was truly a full team effort and we saw both veterans and our freshmen step up. The pattern is playing tight in this building and it creates a reality where it is difficult to strike. To illustrate, we left nearly 95 single-pin spares. We hit the pocket a lot under difficult situations and that helped us lead the way."
 
In a tight opening match which saw No. 18 Maryville University with a one-pin lead after three games, LMU stumbled with a poor fourth game and fell 901-872. Senior Marisol Dodson led the way with a 67 pocket percentage, 41.7 strike percentage and 83 percent of frames with greater than nine.
 
The Lady Railsplitters lit up the lanes in its second match of the day against Upper Iowa, shooting the highest five-game Baker block of the tournament. LMU recorded 24 strikes and was perfect on single-pin spares (10-of-10). Once again, Dodson had a fine performance with six strikes (50%) as she was 4-for-4 on Baker doubles. Freshman Jada Bassette, junior Justine Brookover and senior Mary-Kate Kersting were all 70 percent-plus with shots greater than nine.
 
Brookover was in the pocket 9-of-10 times in the Lady Railsplitters' win over Dominican University, leading to five strikes in the match. Freshman Sofia Colon had a strike rate of 60 percent, a Baker double-strike percentage of 67 and was 100 percent on single-pin spares in the contest, while Dodson was 60% on strikes (6-of-10) and 50 percent (4-of-8) on Baker double strikes.

LMU's fourth match of the day against 10th-ranked and tournament host Wisconsin-Whitewater saw very difficult lane conditions leading to an extremely low-scoring affair. During their 883-856 setback, the Lady Railsplitters had eight splits. Kersting had a 50 percent (5-of-10) strike rate and junior Chelsea Nakaoka was at 60 percent (3-of-5). 
 
In the rout of North Central College, Nakaoka achieved a pocket percentage of 90 (9-of-10) with five strikes for 50 percent. Kersting had a strike rate of 50 percent (5-of-10) and was 100% (2-for-2) on Baker doubles as Dodson went 7-of-14 for a .500 strike rate.
 
Up Next…
The Lady Railsplitters will face Lewis University, Marian University, Tusculum, No. 12 Central Missouri and Valparaiso in traditional team matches Saturday beginning at 10:25 a.m. EST. Sunday morning, LMU will have one final traditional team match against Aurora University before three rounds of best 4-of-7 bracket play Baker matches decide a tournament champion. Seeding for Sunday's bracket play will be determined by teams' pinfall total from Friday's Baker matches and the six 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.