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Howell, NJ - Fairleigh Dickinson had waited for this one since 2011, so what was one more match anyway.

Sacred Heart, which played its way from the qualifying bracket all the way into the championship final, dealt top-seeded FDU a 4-2 defeat on Sunday to force an “if necessary” winner-take-all title bout later in the afternoon.

Beating the No. 2 team in the nation in back-to-back best-of-7 baker matches is quite a tall task though, and one that SHU was unable to complete on Championship Sunday of the seventh annual Northeast Conference Tournament at Howell Lanes.

Bouncing back from its lone loss of the weekend, Fairleigh Dickinson rolled to a four-game sweep and secured its first conference crown in four years.

"It feels great. We set this [winning the NEC Tournament] as a priority goal at the beginning of the season,” said FDU head coach Michael LoPresti. “We’ve been the No. 1 seed after the regular season for a few years now and would always flame out in this tournament. We really wanted to play well.”

In 2012, the top-seeded Knights dropped a 4-3 decision to Sacred Heart in the championship final. FDU earned the No. 1 seed again in 2013, but was eliminated after just two matches.

After earning a share of the regular season crown, the Knights were the No. 2 seed in the 2014 bracket, but failed to advance to the tournament’s second day.

Both Fairleigh Dickinson and Sacred Heart entered the day in search of a third NEC Tournament title. The two programs have combined for five conference titles in the first seven years of NEC bowling – FDU (2009, 2011, 2015), SHU (2010, 2012).

Sacred Heart powered past defending NEC Tournament champion Saint Francis U in an elimination match that opened play on Sunday. The Pioneers shot out to a 3-0 lead before closing out the best-of-7 baker match in five games.

Rolling out of the losers’ bracket and into the championship final against Fairleigh Dickinson, Sacred Heart jumped out to a 3-0 lead over the Knights.

FDU came storming back, but SHU anchor Lauren Hoffman, an all-NEC first team selection, quelled the rally by doubling in the 10th frame of Game 6 to a clinch a 4-2 win and force the “if necessary” match that would decide the 2015 NEC champion.

“Give credit to Sacred Heart. They really stuck it to us. They got a lot of big shots,” said LoPresti of Sunday’s first bout with the Pioneers. “We got fired up at the end. We had some momentum, but they stuck it right back to us.”

Moving over to Lanes 9 and 10 for the title tilt, Fairleigh Dickinson set the tone early by filling its first 18 frames of the eventual four-game sweep.

“In the second match, we went out a little bit differently. We were controlling the transitions," said LoPresti.

FDU leadoff bowler Morgan Brown was sensational, striking on 5 of 8 attempts and filling all eight frames.

Fellow sophomore Melanie Hannon, who accounted for the team’s first open of the match in the ninth frame of Game 2, struck on her first three shots of the title match from the No. 4 spot of the Knights’ lineup.

Coming off the bench to fill the No. 2 hole, junior Natasha Ashby strung together 8 filled frames. The Philadelphia product threw three strikes and five 9-spares as FDU ended its NEC title drought.

“We made some personnel moves to take advantage [of the lane conditions in the second match],” said LoPresti, who is now focusing his attention on capturing the season’s biggest prize – the NCAA title.

“We got one more. One more tournament to get. One more tournament to perform.”



** UPDATED - March 27, 2015 **

2015 NEC All-Tournament Team
Melanie Hannon (MVP), FDU
Liat Vizenfeld, FDU
Christina Leid, SFU
Mikaela Marbot, SHU
Lauren Hoffman, SHU

* All-Tournament Team is determined by a post-meet vote of the league's head coaches.






































Match-by-Match Scores...

Sun. March 22, 2015 
Match 10: SHU vs. SFU  
Gm 1: SHU-206; SFPA-191  
Gm 2: SHU-200; FDU-183 
Gm 3: SHU-170; SFPA-162  
Gm 4: SHU-187; SFPA-221 
Gm 5: SHU-189; SFPA-148  
SHU wins, 4-1; SFU eliminated

Match 11: FDU vs. SHU  
Gm 1: FDU-164; SHU-186 
Gm 2: FDU-177; SHU-201 
Gm 3: FDU-175-; SHU-202 
Gm 4: FDU-235; SHU-207 
Gm 5: FDU-168; SHU-163 
Gm 6: FDU-223; SHU-232 
SHU wins, 4-2  
to force ‘if necessary’ match

Match 12: FDU vs. SHU    
Gm 1: FDU-211; SHU-157 
Gm 2: FDU-201; SHU-171  
Gm 3: FDU-194; SHU-167  
Gm 4: FDU-203; SHU-160 
FDU wins, 4-0 to win NEC title