A-State selected to NCAA Women’s Bowling field
A-State Sports
Dennen Cuthbertson, Assistant Director for Athletics Media Relations
JONESBORO – The Arkansas State women’s bowling team was one of eight teams selected to participate in the 2017 NCAA Women’s Bowling Championship as the field was announced in an NCAA.com Selection Show Wednesday afternoon.
This is the 10th straight appearance in the NCAA Women’s Bowling Tournament for the Red Wolves, with the last eight coming under head coach Justin Kostick’s leadership. A-State currently sports a record of 82-32 after finishing as the runner-up in the Southland Bowling League Tournament March 24-26. The Red Wolves were ranked third in the latest National Tenpin Coaches Association Poll released at the beginning of March.
“I’m happy and honored to be in the field again,” Kostick said. “Now it’s time to get prepared and we need great preparation to achieve our ultimate goal of winning the national championship.”
Joining the third-seeded Red Wolves are No. 1 Nebraska, No. 2 McKendree, No. 4 Sam Houston State, No. 5 Vanderbilt, No.6 Fairleigh Dickinson, No. 7 Stephen F. Austin, and No. 8 Maryland Eastern Shore.
Competition begins with qualifying rounds in which each team bowls one five-person regular team game against each of the other seven participating teams. Teams will be seeded for bracket play based on their win-loss record during the qualifying rounds. At the conclusion of the qualifying rounds, teams will then compete in best-of-seven Baker matches in the double elimination tournament. In the Baker format, each of the five team members, in order, bowls a complete frame until a complete (10-frame) game is bowled. A Baker match tied at 3½ a piece after seven games will be decided by a tiebreaker using the Modified Baker format.
Tulane University and the United States Bowling Congress will co-host the championship, which will be held April 13-15 at Raising Cane’s River Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Tickets can be purchased on NCAA.com prior to the championship.
The championship final will air on ESPNU Saturday, Apr. 15 at 6:30 p.m. ET.
A-State won two tournaments this season with titles at the Warhawk Classic (Nov. 11-13) and Big Red Invitational (March 2-4) and hasn’t finished lower than fifth at any event this season. Additionally, A-State has had 13 all-tournament selections this season with Jordan Richard setting a new school record with seven and tying another school record with four MVP awards. Most recently, she was named to the Southland Bowling League All-Tournament team.