LANSING, Mich. -- Entering the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference Championships as the No. 4 seed, the University of St. Francis women's bowling team ran the table to its first league championship on Saturday at the Royal Scot Bowling Center.  The title also punches the Saints' ticket to the NAIA National Championships, which will take place March 19-21 at the same location.

USF advanced to the semifinal round by the slimmest of margins, winning each of its first two bracket matches in the deciding fifth game of the best-of-five series.  In Round 1, the Saints raced out to a 2-0 lead only to have No. 5 Rochester Christian University (Mich.) rally in the next two games.  St. Francis then advanced with a 176-167 victory in Game 5.

In the next matchup, the Saints won Games 2 and 3, while No. 8 Madonna University (Mich.) bookended its two wins in Games 1 and 4.  In the finale, St. Francis eked out a 157-156 victory.

The semifinal round proved to be the easiest as USF needed only four games against No. 3 Aquinas College (Mich.) to move on to the championship.  There, the Saints opened with a 167-166 nod over top-seeded Indiana Institute of Technology.  The Warriors had to go through the elimination bracket to get to that point after being upset in the first round by Madonna.

Indiana Tech then built a 2-1 advantage with victories in Games 2 and 3 before the Saints put together their final push with wins in Games 4 (181-172) and 5 to earn the crown.

The news was not as good on the reserve front, where the Saints dropped 3-2 and 3-1 decisions to conclude their season.

Up Next
USF competes in the United States Bowling Congress Intercollegiate Singles & Team Championships from March 13-15 in Fort Worth, Tex.    

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