The Duquesne women’s bowling team defeated Stephen F. Austin once in the Pittsburgh regional in the NCAA tournament. To move closer to earning a trip to Las Vegas next weekend and the championship round, it needed to beat them twice.
Instead, the Dukes fell, 2-1, to the Ladyjacks in the elimination round Saturday morning at AMF Mt. Lebanon Lanes. The rematch was set up when Duquesne lost to Nebraska, 2-0, Friday afternoon, hours after opening the regional with a 2-0 win against the fifth-ranked Ladyjacks.
“SFA is just a really tough team. We knew they were going to bowl better the second time around,” said Duquesne coach Jody Fetterhoff, the Northeast Conference coach of the year who led her team to a share of the regular-season league title.
The Cornhuskers, the top seed in the regional and No. 4 overall, punched their ticket to Las Vegas with a 2-1 win against Stephen F. Austin Saturday afternoon in the regional final.
The Dukes (70-32), ranked 11th in both of the sport’s major polls, took a 1-0 lead against Stephen F. Austin in the rematch with a convincing 1,022-946 win behind a 226 from Plum graduate Shannon Small, a junior, and a 224 from Megan Brookover, a sophomore from Davisville, W.Va.
The Ladyjacks (83-39) rebounded to win the next two rounds under the Baker team format, in which bowlers rotate in and out by frame. Duquesne lost the second round by a 952-887 score over five games, and the pivotal third round, 4-3, which gave each team one point per win in a best-of-seven series. Stephen F. Austin won the deciding seventh game, 192-180.
“I think they like the Baker games more,” Fetterhoff said. “We went up early on them in the Bakers, and they just started stringing strikes. I think that was the difference; they were able to string more strikes than we did.”
Mercyhurst (83-40), from Erie, the fourth team in the Pittsburgh regional, was eliminated with losses Friday to Nebraska and Stephen F. Austin. Joining Nebraska April 14-15 in Las Vegas are the other regional winners: McKendree, the defending national champion from Lebanon, Ill.; Vanderbilt; and Arkansas State.
The Dukes might not be going to Las Vegas for the NCAA final, but they still are going to Las Vegas, only for the Intercollegiate Team Championship Nationals, which is staged by the United States Bowling Congress, April 19-22. They qualified by finishing third of 15 teams in the sectional a month ago in Dayton, Ohio. Kiearra Saldi, Duquesne’s only senior, will bowl for the singles championship after finishing fourth in a field of 154 in the singles portion of the sectional.
“We beat the fifth-ranked team once. That gives us a ton of confidence. Hey, we’re right there. We can compete with the best of the best,” Fetterhoff said. “Being in those moments, that experience, it just makes you better.”
Rob is an associate sports editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike.