CHESAPEAKE, Va. – The Norfolk State bowling team will be the No. 4 seed on Saturday during the second day of the 2018 MEAC Championship after the Spartans completed the qualifying round on Friday at the AMF Lanes in Chesapeake.
No. 25-ranked Norfolk State earned the fourth seed after Friday's traditional play, with seeding based off total pinfall. In five games, NSU finished with a total pinfall of 4,378, ahead of No. 5 Florida A&M (4,269) and No. 6 Morgan State (4,123).
As a result, the Spartans will take on FAMU in the first round of the double-elimination bracket round on Saturday beginning at 9 a.m. The Spartans and Rattlers will be joined by No. 1 seed North Carolina A&T (5,055 pins) on their side of the bracket. The eventual winner out of those three teams will advance to Sunday's championship match at noon against the winner of the other side of the bracket.
No. 2 seed Delaware State (4,769), No. 3 seed Maryland Eastern Shore (4,636) and sixth-seed Morgan State will battle it out on Saturday as well for a spot in the final. Saturday's play will be in a best-of-seven Baker format.
On Friday, the Spartans fell to the teams that eventually finished ahead of them while also defeating the two teams that finished behind them. NSU started off by dropping a 1,012-888 contest to No. 7 ranked Delaware State before topping Morgan State, 821-778.
No. 8 ranked Maryland Eastern Shore just edged out the Spartans by an 881-877 margin before No. 18 N.C. A&T topped them by a 1,012-929 score. Norfolk State finished out play with an 863-808 triumph over FAMU.
Senior
Briana Gardner had the best day of NSU's six bowlers, rolling four 200 games on the way to a 203.6 average in all five games. She finished with the fifth-best average at the championship and had all four of the team's 200 games on Friday.
Junior
Alexa Rodriguez was next in line at 175.8 in five games, while senior
Meagan Marciano was the only other bowler to compete in all five games, finishing at 166.2. Sophomore
Heizel Quinones (169.0) and freshman
McKayla Lang (166.5) each competed in four games, while sophomore
Aubrey Conrad saw time in two.
The winner of Saturday morning's NSU-FAMU match will play N.C. A&T at 10:40 a.m. The losers of those first two matches will meet up again at 12:20 p.m. The next round will begin at 2 p.m., with the if-necessary match set for 3:40 p.m. to close out the day.
