Women's Bowling | 3/21/2026 11:14:00 PM

GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T bowling made history on Saturday. The Aggies clinched their ninth straight Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) championship match final with a 2-0 Mega Match victory over the UAB Blazers at the 2026 MEAC Bowling Championship Tournament hosted by A&T at Triad Lanes on 21 Oak Branch Drive.

This shatters the North Carolina A&T Department of Athletics record for consecutive appearances in a conference tournament championship final. The bowling team surpassed the men's basketball team, which advanced to the MEAC tournament final eight straight seasons from 1981-88. The Aggies last missed the conference final in the 2016 tournament, a few months before Kim Terrell-Kearney took over as A&T's head coach.

The only thing that has prevented Terrell-Kearney from reaching an MEAC final during her tenure at A&T was the COVID season, when the MEAC did not hold a championship tournament.

"Today went great," said Terrell-Kearney, who won her seventh consecutive MEAC Coach of the Year award on Thursday. "There's the expectation that we are going to make the show every year, and I think with that comes some pressure. We've been trying to balance that the whole weekend."

A youthful A&T team has looked impressive thus far. A&T, the No. 1 seed at the MEAC tournament and the 12th-ranked team in the National Tenpin Coaches Association (NTCA) Top 25 poll, blew past eighth-seeded Norfolk State on Friday before looking terrific against an eager University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) team, the tournament's fifth seed, in a hard-fought 2-0 Mega Match series win. On Saturday, the Aggies had the challenge of facing the 19th-ranked and No. 2 seed UAB.

No problem. A&T had one of its best traditional showings this season, compiling a total pinfall of 1,128 to defeat the Blazers, 1,128-966. Four of A&T's five bowlers topped 200; three went over 230. Senior Juliana Sams led with a 256, followed by junior Savannah Burgin, the leadoff bowler, with 244. Junior Payton Hartgrove ended traditional play by bowling a 235, and sophomore anchor Victorya White added a 212.

UAB got off to a slow start in the Baker format. It allowed A&T to build a 55-pin advantage, an advantage they played steadily enough to keep. The Aggies had a 96-pin advantage going into Game 4 against the Blazers, and even after posting only a 161 total pinfall, the Blazers did not take advantage. They bowled a 148, putting the Aggies in position to put them away in Game 5.

They did. The Aggies delivered a 226 total pinfall, capturing the Baker portion of the Mega Match, 1,016-855. The Aggies will face UAB or UMES in the championship final at 2 p.m. on Sunday at Triad Lanes. The championship final will stream on ESPN+. A&T's opponent will emerge after UAB and UMES compete at 9 a.m. on Sunday.

"We need a good showing here for our postseason to go on, so winning the championship here secures that," said Terrell-Kearney. "I'm so excited about getting them on TV tomorrow to see what we can do."