EMMITSBURG, Md. (March 20, 2021) – One day after facing a 299 from top-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson, the Mount fell victim to a 300 game from Skyler Brown of Sacred Heart in a 2-1 mega match loss to the Pioneers. The 300 from SHU was critical in giving the Pioneers a 1-0 lead before the Mount took the quint baker match to even things up at 1-1. Despite out averaging SHU in the best-of-seven format, the Mount fell 4-2 and were eliminated from the NEC Championship bracket.

In the traditional format it was freshmen Paige Boyd leading the way with a 220 game, while Junior Tamera Stanton continued her hot weekend with a 205 game. In baker play, it was freshmen Alyssa Alexander leading the way with a 21.86 baker frame average.

Mount: 1 | Sacred Heart: 2

A 300 by Skyler Brown pushed the Pioneers up 1-0 with an incredible 1192 set, good enough for the second highest traditional match in the 2020-21 NCAA bowling season. The Mount refused to go down, however, faring better on the transition in quint baker with a 1,001 – 979 victory. It came down to the best-of-seven format, with both teams exchanging wins thru the first five games. All the wins would come on the left lane until game six, where the Mount lost a three pin heartbreaker in the tenth frame to give SHU the 4-2 advantage.

With their performance at the NEC Championships, the Mount will present their 37-18 overall record to the national committee for potential selection into the NCAA National Championship bracket as an at-large selection. This year presents an especially challenging task to the committee being that the central and east region teams did not crossover in competition for the majority of the season.

"Although our scoring pace was tremendous this weekend, we simply played the wrong hands at the wrong time," said head coach Kenneth DeGraaf. "I am not sure if any team in NCAA history has ever gone up against a 299 in one match and then a 300 the very next match. Yet, we never lost our fight and gave it all we got. When I look back at the season thus far, my confidence in this team is we are without a doubt a top-16 team in the country. We had some amazing non-conference showings and rank top-10 nationally in almost every category from team average to TCPI to RPI and the NTCA Poll. While I do not envy the job these committee members have, all we can do is hope for a chance to prove ourselves at that national level. I really think we can make some noise if given the opportunity."

The NCAA Women's bowling selection show will occur March 31 at 4:00 p.m. Eastern. Coincidentally, the United States Bowling Congress will also announce their sectionals assignments on March 31. Should the Mount qualify for both, NCAA Nationals will occur April 7-10 in Kansas City and ITC Sectionals will occur April 16-18 at a location to be determined.