RALEIGH, N.C. – It has been an interesting 2024 MEAC Bowling Championship Tournament thus far. The No. 2 seed and the 24th-ranked team in the National Tenpin Coaches Association (NTCA), Delaware State, got eliminated on Saturday morning.
The top seed, the No. 5 team in the nation, and the three-time defending MEAC champion North Carolina A&T Aggies must play an elimination Mega Match Sunday morning to reach the championship final because the Aggies lost 2-0 in Mega Match play to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES), the tournament's No. 3 seed and the 15th-ranked team in the nation in a winner's bracket semifinal on Saturday afternoon.
If that is not whacky enough, the Aggies will face the eighth-seeded Howard Bison in the elimination match after the Bison, the lowest seed in the tournament, defeated the fifth-seeded Monmouth Hawks in the morning and the seventh-seeded Norfolk State Spartans later in the day.
The Aggies lost in the MEAC tournament for the first time in five years, which was in the UMES championship match. Therefore, no one on A&T's current roster had ever experienced a conference tournament loss.
"Today was rough," said MEAC bowler of the year Lauren Tomaszewski. We went into it confident we would win, but the pins didn't fall in our favor. Some challenges were getting momentum and keeping it. Also, our energy wasn't as good as it should have been in the beginning, and then when we turned it on, it was too late. How the lanes broke down was a challenge. Hopefully, we learned from today, and we will use it as an advantage."
UMES and A&T have created quite a rivalry over the years as the two premiere programs in the MEAC. UMES is after its 11th MEAC title, and the Aggies are seeking their ninth. They opened the traditional team games portion of the Mega Match with an incredibly competitive match. UMES defeated A&T 894-891 in traditional.
Neither team got comfortable on the lanes. In a rarity, the Aggies failed to have a bowler score better than a 200 total pinfall in the matchup as junior and first-team All-MEAC performer Maya Avilez led the way with a 193. Senior Melanie Katen, who won the previous two MEAC bowler of the year awards before Tomaszewski, contributed with a 192.
"We were not our best today," said Avilez. "Shotmaking was not like usual, and we were very behind the moves at some points. We need to be better, that's all. We need to see it better and be physically better. It's quite simple."
In Bakers play, the Hawks defeated the Aggies 996-962 behind a 227 from Alejandra Amezcua and a 225 from Brooke Roberts. Sophomore Laura Garcia tried to keep the Aggies in it with a 231. Junior left-hander Laura Garcia came through with a 223, and junior Grace Stull added a 203.
But the two conference bowlers of the year on the Aggies roster – Tomaszewski and Katen – failed to reach a 170 total pinfall in the Baker format contest.
"Going into tomorrow, we need not to take anyone lightly," said Tomaszewski. "We know that the lanes are going to play differently than today and that we need to make quality shots from Frame 1 and keep making spares. It will set us apart to win our four-peat."
A&T will face Howard at 9 a.m. If the Aggies win, they will advance to their seventh straight championship final and face UMES at 2 p.m. live on ESPN+.
