LANSING, Mich. -- The University of St. Francis women's bowling team began NAIA National Championship competition on a strong note Thursday afternoon when it won its first Mega-Match Series of the Red Bracket against Spring Arbor University (Mich.) before falling to Savannah College of Art & Design (Ga.) in the second round that resulted in the Saints moving down to the elimination bracket in the double-elimination style tournament.  St. Francis was one of 12 teams to make the national championship finals.

The No. 12-seeded Fighting Saints upset the defending national champions and No. 5-seeded Spring Arbor after capturing two of the three points necessary to advance.  St. Francis obtained its first point with 926 pins knocked down following round one, which consisted of a five-man traditional game series.  Cassidy Stewart (237), Bryanna Battles (180), Lindsey Prosperi (178), Kaitlyn Thompson (168), and Demetra Kontos (163) were called upon to compete for the Saints, whose combined total edged out Spring Arbor's by just 22 pins.  The Cougars totaled 904 pins.

In round two, USF also claimed the second point of the Mega-Match resulting in the 2-0 victory after totaling 993 pins to SAU's 989 in a total pinfall Baker five-set series.  St. Francis held a 54-pin lead after the first three sets before Spring Arbor aggressively came back in the final two sets, outscoring the Saints by 50 pins over the final two sets.  The comeback would not be enough however to claim the point with the Saints winning with a four-pin margin.

Following the victory over Spring Arbor, the Saints advanced to faceoff against No. 4-seeded SCAD-Savannah.  St. Francis could not duplicate its performance in round one, conceding the first point, before defeating the Bees with a round two win.  Leigha Henkel (194), Thompson (189), Katelynn Statz (175), Stewart (173) and Battles (162) combined to post a round one total of 893 to SCAD's 942, while USF's 965-pin output in round two exceeded the Bees' 935-pin total.

In the tiebreaker, SCAD-Savannah jumped out to a 2-0 lead before the Saints won the third set to bring the score to a 2-1.  The Bees would later win two of the remaining three sets of the series and capture the third point of the Mega-Match with a 4-2 final score and 2-1 overall win, forcing the Saints into Friday's elimination bracket.

A total of four elimination rounds will be played on Friday in each of the Red and Blue brackets with the victors facing off against the last remaining unbeaten team in each respective bracket.  The final two teams standing after Friday's faceoffs will advance to Saturday's Championship match.

Up Next
The Saints will face No. 8 William Penn University (Iowa) on Friday at 7:30 am CST.  The Statesmen dropped down into the elimination bracket after falling to No. 9 Calumet College of St. Joseph (Ind.) 2-1 in their Mega Match Series.

You can keep up with everything happening around USF Athletics on X @USFSaints.