North Brunswick, N.J. (February 26, 2021) – The Mount St. Mary's bowling team will enter Saturday clinching onto the final spot for the NEC Tournament. Despite three matches that all came down to the wire, the Mountaineers failed to get in the win column against the first place Fairleigh Dickinson Knights on Friday.

Mount: 899 | FDU: 997
The final score did not indicate how close the Mount's opening match with FDU was. Entering the ninth frame down only 30 pins, the Mountaineers were unable to manage a comeback with multiple opens in the ninth and tenth frames. Junior Tamera Stanton led the charge with a 205 traditional game.

Mount: 917 | FDU: 935
After falling behind by 73-pins after game one, the Mount comeback fell just short in a heartbreaking 18-pins loss to the Knights, 198-184. Junior Barbara Hawes entered the lineup and made an immediate impact.

Mount: 3.5 (211-193-141-187-201-175-201-60) | FDU 4.5 (189-193-149-245-188-161-205-89)
After going ahead 1-0, costly opens at the end of games two and three made it a 1.5 – 1.5 tie. After FDU won game four to make it 2.5-1.5, the Mount won the next two with games of 201 and 175. Another costly open by MSM in game seven forced a tie breaker in which FDU won 60-89 in the five frame format.

"The sky is not falling, but we need to find a way to stop playing to our opponents level," said head coach Kenneth DeGraaf. "We should have been up 3-0 on FDU and instead it was 1-1-1. We battled, but ultimately fell victim to once again failing to shut the doors. We are going to have team meetings, video analysis, everything possible until this time tomorrow to change our mindset with the season on the line."

Competition will resume tomorrow at 9 a.m. as the Mountaineers take on Duquesne.