DALLAS, Texas – The top-seeded Arkansas State women’s bowling team swept fourth-seeded Stephen F. Austin 2-0 in the 2018 Southland Bowling League Championship match and earned the league’s automatic bid to the 2018 NCAA Tournament Sunday at USA Bowl in Dallas, Texas.

The win means A-State (87-34) will make its 11th straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament as one of 10 teams in the expanded field. The 2018 NCAA Women’s Bowling Championship will be held at Tropicana Lanes in St. Louis, Mo., April 12-14.

“I’m very glad to get the automatic bid and this tournament gives us great experience because we used the new NCAA Tournament format,” A-State head women’s bowling coach Justin Kostick said. “We were down in several of the matches and you can’t simulate that type of pressure except in a tournament like this.”

The Red Wolves began the match with a 962-944 win in the traditional match with Leah Glazer bowling a 220, while Jadee Scott-Jones and Jordan Richard chipped in with a 208 each. The team then went on to post a 923-900 victory in the five-game Baker match to sweep the Ladyjacks.

Richard was named the Most Valuable Bowler for the tournament, while Glazer made the All-Tournament team, which was her second of the campaign. This is Richard’s sixth all-tournament award of the season and her first MVP honor. A native of Tecumseh, Mich., Richard now has a school-record 19 all-tournament honors, while the MVP award is the seventh of her career, also a school record. She has been named the Most Valuable Bowler at two Southland Bowling League Tournaments and was named to the All-Tournament squad in the other she competed in.

“I am very pleased with the way we performed, especially after having to spend 13 hours in the bowling center yesterday,” Kostick continued. “SFA is a very quality team as well so it was great to be able to get another chance at them after they beat us earlier in the event.”

The NCAA Women’s Bowling Committee will select a field of 10 teams – six automatic qualifying teams, which A-State is now one of, and four at-large teams. Teams will be ranked, based on available selection criteria, with the top six being placed in the championship bracket. The remaining four teams will play in opening round matches to determine the final two teams that will compete in the championship.

Selections for the 2018 National Collegiate Women’s Bowling Championship will be announced on Wednesday, March 28, 2018 via web stream on NCAA.com.

Fans can keep up with the Arkansas State women’s bowling team by following the squad on Twitter (@AStateBowling) and by liking the Arkansas State Women’s Bowling page on Facebook.

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BATON ROUGE, La. – The Arkansas State women’s bowling team lost a 4-0 contest to Sam Houston State Saturday morning at the Raising Cane’s River Center in Baton Rouge, La., to end its quest for its first national championship and finished in a tie for fifth in the event for the fourth straight season.

The Red Wolves end the season with an 86-38 record with the 86 wins representing the third most in program history. This year’s NCAA Tournament was A-State’s 10th straight appearance.

Arkansas State fell behind 2-0 with 224-179 and 192-147 losses to Sam Houston State, but looked poised to take game three before a late rally gave the Bearkats a 222-212 win. A-State had a chance to win game four, but Jordan Richard couldn’t register a strike on the second roll of 10th frame as the Red Wolves lost another close one 191-182.

“We started slow today, but we bowled pretty well in the last two matches, but Sam Houston bowled a little bit better,” A-State head women’s bowling coach Justin Kostick said. “Even though we threw good shots we just couldn’t strike enough today. I’m proud of the team, there was no give up and we fought until the end. We came back and beat Stephen F. Austin, the defending champs, from 3-2 and then battled back to win even it with Vandy 2-2 yesterday. We had a chance to win game six in that match and who knows what goes on in game seven, but we never quit and I’m proud of that.”

The Red Wolves lost two seniors in Brooke Wood and Samantha Wallace and are set to return eight players from this year’s squad for the 2017-18 season.

Sam Houston State advanced to play McKendree and will have to beat the Bearcats twice to advance to the national championship. Nebraska defeated Maryland Eastern Shore in the other elimination match and will have to top Vanderbilt twice to advance to the championship.

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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.

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JONESBORO – The Arkansas State women’s bowling team finished in second place on the final day of competition at the Southland Bowling League Championship tournament with a 2-0 series loss to Vanderbilt in the championship match.

A-State, who has competed in the finals in each of the league’s first three years of existence, finished as the runner-up for the second time. Jordan Richard was also named to the league’s All-Tournament team.

The top-seeded Red Wolves, who defeated the Commodores Saturday afternoon to earn a spot in the finals, found themselves in a close contest during the traditional portion of the match at the midway point with No. 3 Vanderbilt holding a 347-324 edge. The lead quickly increased to 531-486 after the Red Wolves left several frames open that allowed the Commodores to take advantage.

Vanderbilt continued to put the pressure on A-State and led by nearly 100 pins heading into the final frame and took the match with a 976-856 margin to go up 1-0 in the series.

Arkansas State came out hot in the first game of the five game baker series and knocked down three straight strikes in frames five, six and seven to take a lead. Vanderbilt came roaring back, however, and edged a narrow 216-212 victory to take a four pin lead in the match. The Commodores increased the lead to 439-407 after the second game and then led 638-617 after game three.

In game four, the Red Wolves rallied near the end of the frames and closed with four straight strikes in the ninth and tenth frames, but again Vanderbilt answered their rally with solid frames and took the game 211-210 to push their overall lead to 849-817 heading into the last game.

The 32-pin margin proved too much for Arkansas State to overcome in the final game as Vanderbilt won the game and took the match with a 1,019-989 count to seal the 2-0 series victory.

“We’ve got to find a way to get victories when the pressure is turned up,” A-State bowling coach Justin Kostick said. “We had a great tournament and bowled some great matches throughout the weekend and hopefully we can build off of that as we prepare to for the national tournament in the coming weeks.”

Next up for the Red Wolves is the NCAA Tournament Selection Show, set for March 29 at 3 p.m. (CT) on NCAA.com.  A-State is poised to make its 10th straight appearance in the National Championship Tournament.

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JONESBORO – The 2017 Southland Bowling League Tournament is set for Mar. 24-26 with Arkansas State set to host the event at Hijinx Family Entertainment Center in Jonesboro. The event will be streamed live on InsideBowling.com.

The Red Wolves enter the event with a record of 79-31 and earned the No. 1 seed by virtue of having the best RPI ranking of the league’s eight teams after the regular season. A-State will face eighth-seeded Louisiana Tech in its first match Friday morning at 8 a.m. If the Red Wolves get past the Lady Techsters they would face the winner of the No. 4 seed Stephen F. Austin and No. 5 seed Monmouth.

The other side of the bracket includes third-seeded Vanderbilt playing No. 6 seed Tulane and No. 2 seed Sam Houston State squaring off between seventh-seeded Valparaiso. Each match will be a best-of-three set with the first part featuring the teams bowling a traditional team match before a five-game Baker match. If the two teams split those the third and decisive match will be a best-of-seven Baker match to determine which team advances.

The Southland Bowling League Championship is a double-elimination tournament with the first two rounds set for Friday. The first round begins at 8 a.m., before the second round of matches will start at 1 p.m. Saturday’s competition will also start at 8 a.m., and another round will start at 1 p.m. There will also be another match at 5 p.m. on Saturday before the championship is scheduled for Sunday morning at 9 a.m.

Arkansas State is the defending champion for the tournament after defeating Sam Houston State 4-0 in last year’s championship match. A-State lost to the Bearkats in the semifinals, but defeated Vanderbilt in the consolation final to get another crack at SHSU.

Most recently, A-State finished as the runner-up in the Music City Classic, a tournament that featured 35 teams with 19 of the top 20 teams in the latest NTCA Coaches Poll represented. Prior to last weekend’s result, the Red Wolves won the Big Red Invite March 2-4. A-State also won the Warhawk Classic Nov. 11-13 in Kenosha, Wis.

Jordan Richard leads the team with six all-tournament selections, which has tied the school record for most in one season, which she tied last year and Sarah Lokker set in the 2013-14 season. Julia Huren claimed the first all-tournament and MVP honors of her career at the Music City Classic last weekend.

Fans can purchase a three-day pass for all of the tournament’s matches for $15 or buy a $10 single session ticket for Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Children under the age of five and students at any of the Southland Bowling League Institutions get in free with a valid student ID.

Fans can keep up with the Arkansas State women’s bowling team by following the squad on Twitter (@AStateBowling) and by liking the Arkansas State Women’s Bowling page on Facebook.

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