RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Felician University will compete in the fourth annual East Coast Conference (ECC) Women's Bowling Championship tournament on Friday through Sunday, March 22-24, 2019. The event will be hosted by Kutztown University at Hiester Lanes in Reading, Pa. Felician is an associate member of the ECC only for the sport of women's bowling.
The tournament's public information webpage can be viewed at https://www.eccsports.org/tournaments/wbowl/2018-19/index.
The ECC has 13 members for women's bowling, up from six in 2016, 10 in 2017, and 12 last year. Guided by first-year head coach Taylor Strothmann, the Golden Falcons will be looking to improve upon their ninth-place result in 2018.
"We have the potential to do really well this weekend," said left-hander Kaitlyn Buck (Farmingdale, N.J./Howell), Felician's only senior. "We've put in a lot of hard work, all season long and especially in the last week of practice, and I'm excited to see how it turns out. I have high hopes."
All 13 teams will compete, in pools of seven and six, in five round-robin five-game Baker matches beginning at 9:20 a.m. on Friday, after which they will be seeded, by total pinfall, into a double-elimination bracket. All double-elimination matches will be contested in a Baker best-of-seven playoff format. The first two matches of the bracket will take place on Friday at 3:15.
Double-elimination play will continue at 8:25 a.m. on Saturday with five more rounds. Six teams will return on Sunday at 8:25 a.m. for the final four playoff rounds. The winner of the bracket will be crowned the ECC champion. Lincoln Memorial University captured the 2018 title.
"With a new coach and a young team, we've held our own this season," Strothmann said. "We've been preparing for this tournament all year, mentally and physically. There's a lot at stake this weekend, but we're ready."
Felician, in its fifth season as an intercollegiate program, enters the tournament with a won-lost record of 43-58. Junior righty Nicole Aumack (Brick, N.J./Brick Township), the 2017 ECC Rookie of the Year and a 2018 All-Tournament selection, sits ninth on the conference Player Composite Performance Index list. She is second on the Golden Falcons with a 182.3 traditional average and first with a Baker frame average of 18.40. Sophomore righty Jenn Ingulli (Oakhurst, N.J./Ocean Township) averages a team-best 183.9 in traditional games and 17.07 per Baker frame.
Three nationally-ranked teams are in the field – No. 14 Lincoln Memorial (45-43), No. 17 Adelphi University (62-43), and No. 25 Kutztown (68-53).
Hiester Lanes is located at 801 Hiester Lane in Reading, Pa. Kutztown TV plans to provide a free live webstream of Saturday's and Sunday's action through the ECC Sports Network.
"We have a statistical ranking of ninth based on the regular season," Strothmann said. "I feel like we can seed better than we're ranked, and then once we get into the bracket, it's anyone's game."
Felician University engages more than 2,400 undergraduate, graduate, and adult students through programs in Arts & Sciences, Business, Nursing, and Education. Universal Franciscan values of respect, social justice, and compassion form an inclusive foundation for transforming the lives of tomorrow's leaders. Felician University was ranked 3rd-best return on investment for private colleges in New Jersey in 2018 by the PayScale.com College ROI Report and is ranked the No. 1 safest college campus in the state by niche.com. Felician University also sponsors 14 varsity intercollegiate sports that compete at the NCAA Division II level. To learn more about Felician University please visit www.felician.edu.
