North Brunswick, N.J. (February 27, 2021) – Despite a down weekend thus far, the Mount St. Mary's  bowling team still controls their own fate Sunday entering a matchup with Long Island. The final four spots will be a battle between Mount, LIU, Saint Francis U and St. Francis Brooklyn for a spot in the conference championship tournament three weeks away.

Once 7-3, the Mount has dropped eight straight NEC conference matches against the top three teams in the conference standings (Sacred Heart, Fairleigh Dickinson & Duquesne) to put themselves in a must win position heading into the final day of the regular season.

Mount: 899 | Duquesne: 1,030

The Mount was unable to get a bowler across the 200 plateau while the Dukes averaged over 200 on the set, setting up a near 100-pins loss that was only a 30-pin disadvantage heading into the final three frames.

Mount: 911 | Duquesne: 945

In a painful resemblance to yesterday's quint baker match with FDU, the Mount fell behind big in game one 190-151 before making a valiant comeback effort that never got completed.

Mount: 2 (197-156-191-165-176-180) | Duquesne: 4 (210-159-186-146-225-276)
 
MSM had golden opportunities to close out the Dukes in game one and two but failed to do so in the final frames of both games. This ultimately gave the Dukes a 2-0 lead. While the Mount rebounded to win games three and four to even the series, a 225 and 276 from the Pittsburgh based team was too much to overcome.
 
"The bottom line is tomorrow we control our destiny," said head coach Kenneth DeGraaf. "Yesterday I thought part of the problem was things happening behind the approach… lack of focus, sustained energy, etc. Today, I think those areas were better. Simply put, it was an on the lane issue today. What has been a higher scoring pattern for most of the conference has really gave our team issues."
 
"We love to play the inside lines, but that shot isn't really there this weekend. The teams whacking it are the teams matching up the right ball to stay outside the longest and create the best entry angle. I know we can play these lines because we have done it numerous times before. If we can get the right five lined up and comfortable in a ball that works out there I think we can go off. We know it cannot get any worse, so we have to at least try and we will. Whatever happens tomorrow, good or bad, I can promise it won't be for lack of fight."
 
The Mount will conclude their regular season against Long Island tomorrow with three matches beginning at 9 a.m. ET.