Statesmen Finish 1-2 at NAIA Nationals
Lansing, Mich.–The William Penn women’s bowling team picked up one victory in the contenders’ bracket, but ultimately its run fell short of a crown as it posted a 1-2 record at the Sixth Annual NAIA National Championship Thursday and Friday.
WPU, which entered as the No. 8 overall seed and competed in the Blue bracket, opened with a 2-1 loss to No. 9 Calumet-St. Joseph (Ind.) in a mega match. The navy and gold won the first point (total individual pinfall), but the Crimson Wave answered via total Baker pinfall to force a third and deciding round. The best-of-seven match play battle unfortunately went to CCSJ 4-3.
On the consolation side, the Statesmen met up with No. 12 seed St. Francis (Ill.) and stayed alive with a 4-3 win in a best-of-seven bout. Scores in the match were 138-222, 180-187, 195-158, 208-193, 169-191, 191-179, 199-182.
William Penn was unfortunately eliminated in the next round, though, falling 4-2 to No. 5 Spring Arbor (Mich.) by scores of 194-188, 237-193, 181-243, 179-193, 204-206, 195-202.
Nationals team members included Kelcey Aczon-Kawamura (Sr., Las Vegas, Nev., Nursing), Alaina Degenstein (Fr., Tacoma, Wash., Nursing), Danielle Fincham (Jr., Surprise, Ariz., Exercise Science), Ashley Gorman (So., Stillwater, Minn., Exercise Science), Macyn Huston (So., Durant, Iowa, Elementary Education), Lucy Mitchell (Jr., Poulsbo, Wash., Psychology and Human Services), Hannalee Songer (So., Ottumwa, Iowa, Business Management), and Alyssa Tanner (Fr., Traverse City, Mich., Sports Management).
When the dust settled, No. 2 seed Pikeville (Ky.) downed No. 4 seed SCAD Savannah (Ga.) in the championship matchup for the NAIA title.
“Throughout the season, we worked on executing high-quality shots in pressure situations,” Head Coach Kirstin Foster said. “We also worked on communication and staying present in the moment. All of that clicked together this weekend. All of our matches came down to the final frame of the final game to determine the winner. We had a couple matches that we were down, but the ladies fought their way back to stay in it. Although some matches did not go our way, we never gave up and made the other teams earn it.”
“I am proud of what we accomplished this year,” Foster added. “We are a young team, and conducted ourselves well. I am sad to see our seniors go, but I am grateful for the time I had with them.”
