NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. (February 28, 2021) – The Mount St. Mary's bowling team ended their conference slump at the latest possible moment, taking two of three against Long Island to keep any chance for a Northeast Conference playoffs alive.
 
Once 7-3 in NEC play, the Mount endured an eight game conference losing streak entering Sunday with several close losses to the top three in standings (Sacred Heart, Fairleigh Dickinson and Duquesne) to drop to 7-11. With Sunday being a must win day, a 2-1 showing against the Sharks pushed the Mountaineers to 9-12 with a glimmer of hope for the last playoff spot.
 
Mount: 952 | Long Island: 885
 
The eight game losing streak ended right off the bat Sunday morning, with the Mountaineers taking the traditional match comfortably 952-885 over Long Island. Junior Rebecca Dodson led the Mount with a 221 game.
 
Mount: 871 | Long Island: 921
 
Had the Mount won the middle quint baker match, they could have entered best-of-seven with a chance to clinch a spot at championships. Unfortunately, another first game setback followed by a valiant comeback effort that was not enough proved costly.
 
Mount: 4 (213-234-193-247-258-183-222) | Long Island: 3 (231-202-258-189-230-189-171)
 
Needing a win to keep any realistic chance at postseason play alive, the Mountaineers won an absolute shootout against the Sharks. Long Island came out strong with a 2-1 lead, going 691 in their first three games. The Mount would respond, however, going 247 and 258 in games four and five to take a 3-2 advantage. After losing by six pins in game six, the Mount rallied for a 222-171 advantage to claim their biggest victory of the season to date.
 
"Yesterday I said no matter what happened, it would not be for a lack of effort," said head coach Kenneth DeGraaf. "I am happy to say that is true and fortunately we found a way to get two wins against an LIU team that looked really good today. It would be so easy for this team to give in after losing eight in a row. Yet, in our final matches of six consecutive weekends, we found a way to dig deep and bring out some much needed energy. We tried a different approach to this pattern that has been giving us issues and needless to say I think it paid dividends. We will have to see what happens next weekend, but if that happens to be our last match of the NCAA season we will know that we went out with a bang."
 
The Mount will be particularly interested in the conference dual matches next weekend involving SFU vs. Duquesne and LIU vs. Saint Francis Brooklyn, as the results of those will determine their postseason fate. As it stands right now, the Mount sits fifth place currently occupying the final spot in the NEC Championship field set for March 19-21 in Hamilton, N.J.
 
Current NEC Standings
1. Fairleigh Dickinson (17-1, 0.94)
2. Sacred Heart (14-4, 0.78)
3. Duquesne (13-5, 0.72)
4. Long Island (8-10, 0.44)
5. Mount St. Mary's (9-12, 0.43)
6. Saint Francis U (7-11, 0.39)
7. St. Francis Brooklyn (6-12, 0.33)
8. Wagner (1-20, 0.04)