Wickliffe, OH - Fairleigh Dickinson has done it again. In the team’s eighth trip to the NCAA Bowling Championships, the Knights have earned an eighth appearance in the Final Four.
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FDU won its first two best-of-seven baker matches in the eight-team double-elimination championship bracket on Friday to clinch a spot in the semifinal round.
It was not until the evening session that Vanderbilt stopped Fairleigh Dickinson’s bid for perfection by turning aside the Knights, 4-to-0. A win would have automatically landed FDU in the NCAA title tilt, but instead, the Knights and Commodores will go at it again on Saturday afternoon with a spot in the final on the line.
Meanwhile, Sacred Heart, which defeated FDU in an epic NEC Championship final back in March, dropped matches to defending NCAA champion UMES as well as Valpo. As a result, the Pioneers suffered elimination during Friday’s morning session.
Still alive, FDU will face Vanderbilt on Saturday afternoon at 12:40 pm. The winner of the match will take on The University of Maryland – Eastern Shore in the NCAA Championship match Saturday at 8:00 pm on ESPNU.
The Knights faced Arkansas State in the first round of bracket play on Friday morning. The teams split the opening two games with games of 215-180 in favor of FDU and 225-245 in favor of A-State.
The teams traded strikes in game three. The Red Wolves compiled seven in eight frames, while the Knights strung together seven leading up to the tenth frame. After A-State left the tenth frame open, the game came down to Danielle McEwan’s last shot of the game. The junior threw a strike to give the Knights the final lead, 248-247.
The Knights carried the momentum through game four and five, taking the wins, 224-184 and 233-205 to win the match,
With the win, the Knights moved on to battle the number two seed, Nebraska.
The Cornhuskers took control of the match early, stringing strikes and putting up high scores. Nebraska defeated FDU, 213-254 in game one, 235-145 in game two and 238-194 in game three.
But the Knights could not be counted out. In game four, the Knights used strikes from Michelle Hunzaker, Liat Vizenfeld, Brianna Carlo and Danielle McEwan to defeat Nebraska, 193-169 and bring the score of 1-3.
Nebraska started hot in game five but the final four bowlers for FDU kept the team fighting. Consecutive strikes from Hunzaker, Vizenfeld and Joely Carrillo gave FDU a chance. Three tenth-frame strikes by McEwan gave FDU a 225-218 win.
Trailing by just one game, the Knights had momentum in their favor. The middle of the lineup strung together five strikes to keep up with the Nebraska team who recorded six in the first nine frames. With only the tenth frame remaining, it was an open game.
After the Huskers missed a strike in the tenth frame, McEwan proved her status as NTCA Bowler of the Year. The junior threw three tenth-frame strikes to tie the match at three games each. The Knights took the win in game six, 213-212 and moved on to game seven.
Both teams left the first frame open and struck in the next three frames of game seven. The Huskers seemed to take the lead with a strike in frame five but once again, the Knights refused to stop fighting.
Vizenfeld and Carrillo threw strikes in the eighth and ninth frames to set the game up for a tenth-frame showdown. McEwan shot a final strike to enable the Knights to capture game seven, 213-203 and in turn take the match, four games to three.
“It took us three games to finally figure out what we needed to do and then it was just about momentum,” said Head Coach Mike LoPresti. “We played like a unit today with the highest level of intensity - that is the only way you can come back from 0-3.”
As one of only two undefeated teams, the Knights earned a bye to the next round. Vanderbilt defeated Valparaiso to win a chance to take on FDU and extend their bid to the NCAA Championship.
The Commodores of Vanderbilt used several groups of consecutive strikes to out-score FDU.
In game one, Vanderbilt constructed three sets of double strikes to defeat FDU, 161-223.
The Knights fought to the end of game two and compiled several strikes to conclude the game but fell, 184 to 212. FDU bowled games of 192 in the third and fourth games but it was not enough to fight off a sweep. The Commodores took the match four games to none and earned a chance to face FDU again on the final day of competition.
“In any sport, when you fall behind you put yourself in a big hole and it is hard to climb out,” said LoPresti. “We made critical errors that cannot show up in big-time matches.”