WICKLIFFE, Ohio - The Warhawks women's bowling team wrapped up the best season in program history finishing third in the 2014 NCAA Championships hosted by The Greater Cleveland Sports Commission and the Mid-American Conference at The Game of Wickliffe Friday evening. UW-Whitewater went 2-2 in bracket play Friday.

Results

UW-W went into double-elimination bracket play as the number four seed after Thursday's qualifying rounds. The Warhawks defeated Fairleigh Dickinson 4-1 (217-194, 218-205, 211-244, 205-200, 236-182) to open Friday's best of seven Baker matches. Whitewater fell to a rolling Sam Houston State in match two who had taken down the top seed University of Maryland Eastern Shore in their first round of bracket competition. SHSU won 4-2 (197-195, 212-204, 175-205, 175-235, 212-203, 205-200) to advance into the semifinals. UW-W kept their season going with a win over Vanderbilt 4-0 (235-204, 216-161, 244-171, 191-174) to make their way back into the other semifinal. 

Pinned against reigning champions, Nebraska, the Warhawks struggled with splits falling to the Cornhuskers 3-2. 

UW-W, making their second consecutive appearance in the NCAA Championships, was the lone Division III team competing. Just eight teams are selected from all divisions of the NCAA to compete in the finals. The championships will conclude Saturday with the championship match between Sam Houston State and Nebraska.

Lindsay Rusch (Appleton/Kimberly ) earned NCAA Bowling Championships All-Tournament Team honors Saturday. "Lindsay had a great tournament and did an amazing job in her role of the lead off bowler. As a lead-off bowler you need to be able to throw strikes and fill frames to set the precedence in the match, Lindsay did just that. In a win or go home match against Vanderbilt Lindsay threw seven out of eight strikes to seal the victory against the Commodores," commented coach Eimermann. Earier in the week, senior Katie Zwiefelhofer (Racine/Racine Park ) was named the Division II/Division III Player of the Year and added Second Team All-America honors from the National Tenpin Coaches Association. Freshman Amanda Van Duyn (Kenosha/Kenosha Bradford) earned Division II/Division III Rookie of the Year honors and was named a NTCA Honorable Mention All-American. 

Three Warhawks will compete in the USBC Intercollegiate Singles Championships in Reno, Nev. hosted by Xbowling. Katie Kleinmaier (Dixon, IL/Dixon), Jaymi Watson (Kenosha /Tremper ) and Amanda Van Duyn (Kenosha/Kenosha Bradford) will represent UW-Whitewater at the championships beginning Monday, April 14.

Thursday Recap
WICKLIFFE, Ohio - The Warhawk women's bowling team has qualified as the number four seed in the NCAA Championships at the Game of Wickliffe in Ohio. Thursday's action consisted of qualifying rounds with each team facing the other seven competing teams with win-loss determining the seeds for the rest of the competition. UW-W went 3-4 Thursday to qualify fourth. 

Bracket || Qualifying Results

Whitewater fell to Arskansas State 1054-927 in the opening match of the qualifying round. The Warhawks bounced back with two wins. The first was UW-W's closest of the day, a 1049-1035 win over Fairleigh Dickinson followed by a 999-854 rout of Central Missouri. Vanderbilt (952-906) and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (1009-980) won the next two matches. The Warhawks wrapped up qualifying splitting the final two match of the day. UW-W topped Nebraska 1004-975 before falling to Sam Houston State 1087-974.

UW-Whitewater will open bracket play against Fairleigh Dickinson, the number five seed. UMES grabbed the top seed in qualifying and will face SHSU. Arkansas State, the two seed, with take on the seven seed Central Missouri. Vanderbilt and Nebraska earned the number three and six seeds respectively to be paired in the first round of bracket play. The first round of competition Friday is set to begin at 11:50. 

Preview
For the second consecutive season and second time in program history, the UW-Whitewater women's bowling team has been selected to compete in the NCAA Championships set for April 10-12 in Wickliffe, Ohio. NCAA Press Release

The championships will be held at Game of Wickliffe, Freeway Lanes in Wickliffe, Ohio. 

Eight teams from all three divisions are selected to participate in the NCAA Championships. The 2014 selections including Arkansas State, Central Missouri, Nebraska, Maryland-Eastern Shore, Fairleigh Dickinson, Vanderbilt and Sam Houston State in addition to UW-Whitewater. The Warhawks recorded the best season in school history last season with first round play in the championships.

The championships, hosted by The Greater Cleveland Sports Commission and the Mid-American Conference, will begin Thursday, April 10 with qualifying round action. The teams will bowl a regular team game against each of the other seven competing teams for a total of seven games. Teams will be seeded for competition based upon their win-loss record during the qualifying round. 

The tournament format is set for double elimination featuring best-of-seven Baker matches after the qualifying rounds are complete.

Tickets can be purchases here. The championship finals will air on ESPNU at 8 pm ET April 12. A tape-delayed broadcast of the finals will air on ESPN from 4-6 pm ET April 13.

Nebraska won the championship last season in Canton, Mich., the program's fourth title.


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