JONESBORO – The Arkansas State women’s bowling team earned the third seed in the 2018 National Collegiate Women’s Bowling Championship as announced by the NCAA Wednesday afternoon in its selection show on NCAA.com.

The Red Wolves enter the tournament with a record of 87-34 and clinched their 11th straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament by earning the Southland Bowling League’s automatic bid after winning the SBL Tournament March 25 over Stephen F. Austin.

“It’s always a great honor to be selected into the NCAA Tournament field,” A-State head women’s bowling coach Justin Kostick said. “It was a little anticlimactic because we had already earned an automatic bid, but we’ve kind of always known where we would land in previous years. I thought being the third seed was fair and we are excited to compete for the national championship.”

Joining the Red Wolves in the field are the top seed Nebraska, No. 2 McKendree, No. 4 Vanderbilt, No. 5 Sam Houston State, and No. 6 North Carolina A&T. The remaining four seeds are No. 7 Saint Francis University of Pennsylvania, No. 8 Lincoln Memorial, No. 9 Bowie State, and No. 10 Texas Southern.

Saint Francis will bowl Texas Southern and Lincoln Memorial will bowl Bowie State for the right to enter the top eight on April 6. Arkansas State already knows its first round opponent as the team will bowl No. 6 North Carolina A&T, the automatic qualifier from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

Teams will be seeded and placed into the bracket, with two spots being determined after the completion of the opening-round matches. The championship bracket will be double-elimination, with each round consisting of a best-of-three match that includes the use of three team game formats- baker total pin fall, five-person team match, and a best-of-seven baker match play. The champion will be determined using a best-of-seven baker match play.

The championship matches will be played April 12-14 at Tropicana Lanes in St. Louis, Missouri. The University of Central Missouri and the St. Louis Sports Commission are the hosts. Tickets for the championship can be purchased on NCAA.com prior to the championship.

The championship final will air at 5:30 p.m. CT, Saturday, April 14 on ESPNU and re-air at 6 p.m. CT, Sunday, April 15 on ESPN2.

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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 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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