BALTIMORE, Md. (January 30, 2021) – Mount St. Mary's bowling found more successes in their second tournament of the season. Saturday's CSU Lady Eagles Invitational was capped off with a triumph over No. 8 North Carolina A&T State in the final frames.
 
There were some setbacks in contrast with the near-perfect weekend of the Mount Shootout, including a couple of 800 series and a defeat to Delaware State.
 
"Last week we were able to get by with a shortened roster, but I think that got exposed this week." Head Coach Kenneth DeGraaf said. "We are excited to get a key piece back next week, but we still need to improve with what we have. We left too many doors open for opponents, which cost us our first loss of the season. Still, this team never lacks fight, and albeit not perfect, getting that top-10 win was huge for us."
 
Junior Rebecca Dodson earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team, coming in fifth individually with a 986 series. Tamera Stanton also completed the full five games, tallying a sum of 973. All eight bowlers on the travel roster rolled at least one game.
 
#12 Mount: 1065 | Coppin State: 858
 
The best game was a carryover of momentum from the Mount Shootout. Four members of the squad posted scores above 200, led by a 244 from freshman Alyssa Alexander. Combined with the wins over the Eagles at last week's event, the Mount stands 4-0 against their Baltimore foes.
 
#12 Mount: 945 | #17 Delaware State 978
 
An opportunity for a ninth straight win was halted by Delaware State. Scores declined for all but one of the bowlers, knocking off 120 pins from the previous game. The ranked Hornets took advantage and exacted vengeance following a second place showing in Waynesboro.
 
#12 Mount: 874 | BYE  
 
Performance dipped even further in the bye round to the low point of the day. Barbara Hawes entered the lineup and rolled a 190.
 
#12 Mount: 878 | Norfolk State: 774
 
Saturday's effort began to revert against the Spartans. Despite Dodson being the lone Mountaineer to reach the 200 plateau with a 216, the team posted a 100-pin win.
 
#12 Mount: 945 | #8 North Carolina A&T State: 892
 
Alexander and Amanda Yeung led the way to notch a crucial victory in the early days of the season. The freshman from California earned a 222 game while the sophomore from Delaware finished with a 216. Key strikes in the last frames were pivotal to separating the Mountaineers from the Aggies, who jumped to 3-1 all-time versus the Greensboro goliaths.
 
In terms of total pinfall, the Mount finished third with 4,707 and improved to 10-1 on the season.
 
"The transition was inconsistent today, which requires better spare shooting, something where I thought we lacked focus." DeGraaf said. "Needless to say, you know what we will be practicing this week. It's an exciting thing to go 3-1, average nearly 190 on some tough transitions, and be able to look in the mirror and know we are so much better than that. That's the kind of team we have and we are excited to get back to work."
 
Sunday's Baker play was canceled due to the impending inclement weather. The remainder of the 2021 season is set to be announced Monday.