NORFOLK, Va. – A little home cooking was all the Norfolk State bowling team needed to rebound from its disappointing finish at the first MEAC Southern Divisional of the year. On its home alley, Spartan Lanes, NSU went 7-1 over the weekend at the second divisional of the season.
 
The host Spartans won all four of their Baker matches on Sunday and only fell to Florida A&M on Saturday in traditional play. NSU now stands 10-6 overall in the conference. The team closed the gap on first-place North Carolina A&T, which owns a 12-4 MEAC record.
 
Of those four losses on the year for the Aggies, three were at the hands of NSU, including both matches this weekend. The No. 13 Aggies finished 5-3 overall, with Bethune-Cookman and Florida A&M both going 4-4. North Carolina Central dropped all eight of its matches.
 
All five NSU bowlers averaged at least 181 on Saturday in traditional play, led by senior Kelsea Yarbrough. She posted a 215.0 average in all four games, easily the best tournament performance of her career. She finished third over the weekend in terms of overall individual averages.
 
Yarbrough and her teammates had the unfortunate circumstance of playing Florida A&M first on Saturday, as the Rattlers had their best match of the tournament by far against the Spartans. FAMU won that opening contest, 1,027-889.
 
NSU shook it off, though, to win the next three matches after the bye. It began with a takedown of first-place N.C. A&T, 1,007-922, and continued with a dominating win over N.C. Central, 1,005-701. Bethune-Cookman was NSU's next victim, 957-905, in the last match of the day.
 
Yarbrough had a career-high 238 in that last match, while senior Courtney Brown bowled a career-best 254 to pace NSU's win over the Aggies. Brown finished with the second-highest average on the team, 193.5 in four games, also a career best in terms of tournament average.
 
Junior Carrie Hickey tallied a 189.0 average in four games, while senior Ashley Buck finished with a 185.3 average. Like Buck, sophomore Nicole Rivera Santiago also competed in all four games and rounded out the NSU lineup with a 181.8 average.
 
In Baker play on Sunday, NSU again saved the best for N.C. A&T. In the third match of the day, the Spartans averaged 237.6 in five games to defeat the Aggies, 1,188-945. The Spartans bookended the win with games of 268 and 269.
 
NSU had opened up the day with a 954-917 win over Bethune-Cookman. The Spartans struggled but still defeated N.C. Central, 848-740, in the second match before taking on the Aggies. After a bye, NSU closed out the day with an 876-828 victory over Florida A&M.
 
The third and final divisional will be held Feb. 28-March 1 in Tallahassee, Fla. NSU will next compete at the Fred Underwood Classic from Jan. 16-18 in Laurel, Md., and hosted by Bowie State.