WICKLIFFE, Ohio. (4/13/12) – The Arkansas State
bowling team was eliminated from the NCAA Bowling Tournament after three
matches in bracket play on Friday.
The Red Wolves suffered a 4-1 loss to Fairleigh
Dickinson in the opening round of bracket play, but battled back to defeat
Central Missouri in 4-3 in the next round. In the third round A-State forced a
sixth game after rallying from 3-0 deficit against Vanderbilt, but could complete
the comeback and lost 4-2 to the Commodores.
“We just got behind and we got behind in every
match we had today,” ASU bowling head coach Justin Kostick said. “We lost every
first game in all of our matches and it's tough to continue to comeback time
after time. We gave it a really strong effort against Vanderbilt, but just came
up short.”
Against Central Missouri the Red Wolves went down
3-1, but rallied in games 5, 6 and 7 to stave off elimination. In the fifth
game Amanda Labossiere hit all three strikes in the tenth frame to give ASU a
223-213 victory. In the sixth game A-State faced elimination again heading into
the tenth frame, but the Jennies failed to convert on a spare attempt and which
gave ASU the 187-176 victory.
In the seventh game the Red Wolves had the lane
choice after winning game six and choose to flip the lanes forcing both sides
to make adjustments during the game. The move paved off and the Red Wolves
emerged with a 204-191 victory and took the match 4-3.
“My coaching philosophy is to always flip the
lanes,” Kostick said. “I feel like we make moves better than anybody in the
country and we can adjust to lanes so we want the other team to make
adjustments too.”
In the match against Vanderbilt the Red Wolves
fell behind early and despite a late rally could not overcome the deficit.
Vanderbilt jumped out in front with a 235-212 victory in the first game and
edged out a 226-219 win in game two and then took game 212-194 to go up 3-0 in
the match.
ASU regrouped and won game four 214-176 and then
edged out a 199-193 victory in game five behind a strong game from Labossiere.
The sophomore hit two strikes in the tenth frame to clinch the win. The rally
fell short in the sixth game, however, as ASU faltered and left an open frame
that allowed Vanderbilt to pull away with a 203-189 victory.
Against Fairleigh Dickinson in the day's first
match ASU started slowly and lost the first game 215-180. The Red Wolves
rebounded in the second game, winning 245-225, with strikes from Ashley Rucker,
Emily Troutman, Sarah Lokker and Rachael Gittings in a row and closed out the
game with three strikes in the tenth frame from Amanda Labossiere.
The third game proved to be the turning point in
the match. In the first five frames ASU hit on four strikes and had the lead
going into the tenth frame. However, the Red Wolves struggled in the tenth
frame, while the Knights surged and won 248-247.
Fairleigh Dickinson carried the momentum into
game four, while ASU continued to struggle and left two open frames in the
game. The Knights capitalized on the opportunity and earned a 224-184 victory.
In the fifth game FDU again capitalized on ASU miscues as the Knights won
233-205 and knocked ASU into the bottom half of the bracket.
“We had a really good year,” Kostick said. “We
were ranked No. 1 coming into this thing and I felt were the No. 1 team with
the way we finished at all of our tournaments throughout the year. It was just
one of those things where it is just really tough to lose.”
ASU finished the year with a 90-38 record and the
most wins in school history. It also marked the first time the team had three
players selected to the NTCA All-America team.
