Wichita State’s women’s bowling team advanced to its first NCAA Final Four in its first season of NCAA eligibility. The Shockers swept through the Lansing Regional in three, best-of-three Mega Matches on Friday and Saturday.
Wichita State, Lansing Regional’s No. 1 seed and the No. 4 overall seed in the 19-team tournament, didn’t drop a match against Felician University. They also beat fellow Conference USA member Vanderbilt University twice in the same fashion to win the Regional.
The Regional win and Final Four berth comes less than two weeks after WSU caught fire out of the contenders’ bracket of the CUSA Championship to win its first NCAA conference tournament.
The Shockers are now riding a 10-game winning streak heading into Las Vegas for the Final Four.
The Final Four is scheduled for Friday, April 11, and Saturday, April 12, at Suncoast Lanes in Las Vegas. WSU will play against another CUSA opponent and the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, Jacksonville State University.
The Shockers beat Jacksonville State in two consecutive matches to win the CUSA Championship.
Last Thursday, WSU head coach Holly Harris was named CUSA Coach of the Year. Sophomores Ashtyn Woods and Sara Duque Jiménez were named All-CUSA first team. Graduate student Mary Orf and junior Paige Wagner were named All-CUSA second and third teams, respectively.
Against Felician on Friday, a Division II school in New Jersey, the traditional match was highlighted by five strikes in a row from sophomore Aleesha Oden from frames five to nine. In the sixth frame, Woods converted a 2-10 split to pick up the spare.
Against Vanderbilt, WSU trailed early in the traditional match but still found a way to win, 1,046-963. Duque Jiménez threw six strikes throughout.
The Shockers and Vanderbilt traded games in the baker total pinfall match as WSU eventually won, 1,079-982. The Shockers won games one and three, and Vanderbilt won games two and four. In the fifth and final game of the total pinfall match, WSU pulled out a 234-185 win to seal it.
Duque Jiménez highlighted game three of the total pinfall match with a turkey in the final frame to put WSU up 683-550 in total score at that point.
On Saturday, the Commodores beat Felician to avoid being knocked out via double-elimination and later faced WSU, which set up the 11th meeting between the Shockers and Vanderbilt this season.
The Shockers picked up where they left off against Vanderbilt the day before and won the traditional match, 1,031-928. Senior Piper Reams led the charge with four consecutive strikes out of the gates and finished with a team-high 234 pins.
In the baker total pinfall match, the first three games started the same. WSU took a narrow one-pin advantage after wins in games one and three, but dropped game two.
After game four, the Shockers broke the trend with a 215-205 win and gave themselves an 11-pin cushion going into the final game. In game five, WSU shot its best game of the match with 232 pins to secure the sweep of the Lansing Regional.
