William Penn Claims Fourth Place at Heart Championship

Columbia, Mo.–The Statesmen women’s bowling team posted a fourth-place finish Friday and Saturday as it competed at the Heart of America Athletic Conference Championship, presented by 516 Sports Capital.

In the second year of the tournament’s unique format, each head-to-head matchup was a best-of-three series. The first round was determined by the highest total pinfall across five individual games, while the second round featured a total pinfall from four Baker games. If necessary, the third round was decided by a best-of-five Baker series.

WPU entered the eight-team Championship as the No. 2 seed and advanced on the championship side with a 2-0 win over No. 7 Grand View. Unfortunate, the Statesmen were then relegated to the consolation bracket with a 2-0 setback at the hands of No. 3 Missouri Baptist, 2-0.

The navy and gold stayed alive by sweeping No. 8 Clarke 2-0, but closed out their weekend with a 2-1 loss to No. 4 Columbia.

Mount Mercy eventually won the league title and claimed the Heart’s automatic berth to next month’s NAIA National Championship, while William Penn is hoping it might earn an at-large bid.

“Our ladies bowled well,” Head Coach Kirstin Foster said. “They fought hard in every match, but we came up short of the ultimate goal. They showed a lot of grit as they were down in every match, but always fought to come back. A couple times it worked, and a couple times it did not. This is a format that we only see for conference and nationals so it was new for most of the girls. I am disappointed in the outcome, but I am not disappointed in our team. They came together, worked hard, and now have a new drive we are harnessing going into the rest of our postseason.”

Next Up: William Penn travels to Smyrna, Tenn. on March 7-9 to compete in the USBC Sectionals. Friday, March 7 will be the Singles event, while Saturday and Sunday, March 8-9 will be Team competition.