VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – The North Carolina A&T bowling team took care of business as a No. 1 seed should during the first day of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Bowling Championship Tournament Friday at the Pinboy's at the Beach. By taking care of business, the Aggies will not play until 2 p.m. on Saturday in a winner's bracket matchup against the Monmouth Hawks.
The MEAC plays its tournament in Mega Match format, where the first segment of the competition is played in traditional-game format and the second in Baker. If necessary, the third segment is played in a best-of-seven Baker format.
The Aggies, the two-time defending MEAC champs and the seventh-ranked team in the nation had a close matchup against Howard during the traditional game format portion of the Mega Match before winning 825-817. The Aggies overcame a 210 showing from Howard's Sydney Allison to win. Senior and first-team All-MEAC standout Lauren Tomaszewski led the Aggies with a 191.
A&T looked much shaper in Baker play. They blew out the Bison in Baker play with a 950-678 win to advance by winning the Mega Match 2-0. The Aggies won the first game 225-144 and cruised from there, advancing to face the No. 4 seed and the 24th-ranked team in the nation, Morgan State, in the second round.
The Bears and the Aggies battled into a deciding best-of-seven Baker match to determine who would remain in the winner's bracket. Unfortunately, the Aggies lost in the traditional format, 899-856. Melanie Katen, the reigning two-time MEAC bowler of the year, led the Aggies with a 214 total pinfall. But Carrington Beaman's 210 and Aliya Adams' 189 put the Bears one match shy of advancing and putting the two-time defending champs in the loser's bracket.
Instead, the Aggies recovered to win the Baker segment 1,028-926. The Aggies had three games over 200, including a 245-185 win in Game 5 to clinch the win, evening the Mega Match at 1-1. A&T used that strong showing to look even more impressive in the best-of-seven. The Aggies swept Morgan 4-0 (203-168, 216-197, 189-140, 243-178) to set up their Saturday matchup with Monmouth.
"Overall, we are in the position I hoped for," said A&T head coach Kim Terrell-Kearney, the reigning three-time MEAC coach of the year. "The lane conditions are challenging, so the scores are low. We have to play better at the start, so we aren't working so hard at the end."
Monmouth, the tournament's third seed, arrived in the winner's bracket by beating sixth-seeded Coppin State 931-851 in traditional format before sweeping the Eagles with a 959-760. As a result, the Hawks advanced to face the No. 2 seed and the 10th-ranked team in the nation, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) Hawks.
UMES defeated Monmouth 913-809 in traditional format before Monmouth evened things with a 969-959 win in Baker. Then, in the best-of-seven, Monmouth took down UMES 4-1. The winner of the Monmouth/A&T matchup will advance to the championship match on Sunday. The Aggies are trying to become the first team to three-peat as MEAC champions since UMES did it from 2013-15.
