Facing the who’s who of Division I women’s bowling teams, Alabama State made the trip to Jonesboro, Ark. to take on 14 other teams including eight ranked teams in the top 10 in the first of three days of competition at the Mid-Winter Classic Friday.
The Lady Hornets started slow and rolled below their season average with 4,444 total pins for a team average of 177.8.
Alabama State went winless in five games of traditional matches and topped out with a daily best team score of 901 in the opening match.
The Lady Hornets had closed out last weekend’s competition in the SWAC Round Up on a strong note with two team scores over 1,000 pins. That total would have given ASU four wins on Friday as the Lady Hornets lost to Valparaiso, UAB, Sam Houston State, Nebraska, and McKendree. Three of those losses came by a margin of 43 pins or fewer.
“The ladies executed the picking up of their spares as we practiced and worked,” Alabama State head coach Andrew Chatmon said. “Unfortunately, bad luck got us and we left a ton of splits. It was unbelievable. We were a little inconsistent in our first shots, but the splits we ended up with gave us some difficult shots.”
“Travel had nothing to do with the bad luck we had,” Chatmon added. “I think a turn-around will be easy. We just need to execute better.”
Freshman Lindsay Paredes led the team to start for the second consecutive week with 966 pins for a 193.20 average to finish in the top 30 for individual scorers.
Junior Kaila Ryan knocked down a total of 944 for a 188.80 average to crack the top 40 players.
Nebraska was the lone team to go undefeated with a 5-0 record and topped out the tournament with 5,114 pins.
