Lewis Athletics
Luke Rinne, Director of Athletic Communications
FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS – The Lewis University women’s bowling team competed in its first tournament of the 2020-21 season over the weekend at St. Clair Bowl. The tournament featured three top-10 programs and four top-20 schools overall in the eight-team field.
The Flyers finished the weekend with a 5-8 record and a sixth-place finish. They opened play Friday with five five-game cumulative Baker matches. The Flyers defeated Upper Iowa 884-816, fell to No. 18 Maryville 931-980, beat Drury 861-799, lost to No. 10 Youngstown State 897-1,066 and lost to No. 7 Stephen F. Austin 840-941.
Saturday Lewis bowled in five traditional matches, falling to No. 1 McKendree 918-1,000, Valparaiso 906-990, Stephen F. Austin 873-955 and Youngstown State 860-975 before finishing with a 979-966 win over Drury.
Sunday the Flyers finished traditional play with a 913-749 win over Valparaiso, earning the No. 5 seed in bracket play with 9,862 pins, a 179.3 average.
In bracket play Lewis beat Upper Iowa 4.5-3.5 (178-136, 200-203, 224-183, 143-169, 192-152, 201-237, 201-201, 127-95) in a thrilling tiebreak, rallying in game seven from more than 30 pins down by rolling four straight strikes down the stretch and rallying again in the tiebreak with four straight strikes again.
In the fifth place match the Flyers came back from a 3-0 deficit to force a seventh game before falling 4-3 to Valparaiso (140-152, 145-149, 150-158, 185-154, 180-144, 156-146, 162-198).
Individually, Erin Biccochi (Ladd, Ill./Hall) and Kayla Dench (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield East) both earned All-Tournament Team honors, finishing fourth and fifth place, respectively, with totals of 1,172 and 1,156 over six games. Erica Lohr (Sun Prairie, Wis./Sun Prairie) added a 1,053, DeAlani Fishbeck (Lawton, Okla./Lawton) had a 744 in four games, Morgan Lane (Lockport, Ill./Lockport) recorded a 665 in four games, Jenna Sussenbach (Naperville, Ill./Plainfield North) had a 324 in two games, Amber-Grace Carroll (Belleville, Ill./Belleville East) rolled a 178 game and Savannah Magruder (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield South) added a 157 game.