CHESTERFIELD, Mo. – For the fourth time of the 2019-20 season, the 20th-ranked Lincoln Memorial University women's bowling team captured a top-10 finish by placing ninth among a 19-team tournament field at the Columbia 300 Saints Invite at the Bowlero Lanes in Chesterfield, Missouri. The Lady Railsplitters (39-38) closed out the three-day tournament hosted by Maryville University with a pair of best 4-of-7 Baker match wins over fellow East Coast Conference member Tusculum Sunday.
 
Wrapping up weekend play with a trio of bracket play Baker matches, LMU totaled 12,393 pins and averaged a 190.7 game score. The Lady Railsplitters finished a whole 665 pins in front of the 10th-place Pioneers, who are in their first year as a program, and 1,107 pins shy of eighth-place and 12th-ranked Central Missouri.
 
Beginning and ending the third and final day of bowling with the same result, a 4-0 sweep of Tusculum, LMU rolled games of 200 and 208 to close out its opening round Baker match victory. Vying for a shot at seventh place, the Lady Railsplitters were unable to top No. 11 Louisiana Tech in a seven-game second round match. Winning games one and two of the affair, 217-208 and 218-170, LMU was narrowly defeated by a mere two pins in the third game, 213-211. Finding themselves down 3-2, the Lady Railsplitters won a convincing game six by a 224-169 count to even up the match at 3-3. However, the Lady Techsters took the decisive seventh game 216-158 to send LMU to the ninth-place match.
 
Bowling a 221 in the opening game, the Lady Railsplitters cruised to their second 4-0 Baker match win of the day against the Pioneers.
 
Top-ranked and No. 1 seeded McKendree University took down fourth-ranked and No. 2 seed Arkansas State 4-2 in the championship match to take home the Columbia 300 Saints Invite, while 18th ranked and fourth-seeded University of Wisconsin-Whitewater defeated third-ranked and No. 3 seed Nebraska 4-1 for third place.
 
Up Next…
The Railsplitters will have the next two weekends off from competition before returning to tournament action Friday-Sunday, Feb. 14-16 at nationally-ranked Arkansas State's Mid-Winter Invitational in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
 
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.