RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Felician University will compete in the 2022 East Coast Conference Women's Bowling Championship tournament on Friday through Sunday, Mar. 25-27. The event will be hosted by Adelphi University at Coram Country Lanes in Coram, N.Y. Felician is an associate member of the ECC only for the sport of women's bowling.
The tournament's public information webpage is https://eccsports.org/tournaments/wbowl/2021-22/index. Ticket prices for the tournament are $6 per day or $15 for a weekend pass and can be purchased online at https://eccsports.org/tickets. Felician will stream its matches live at www.facebook.com/felicianwomensbowling.
Felician will be competing in the ECC Championship for the fifth time and the first occasion since 2019. The 2020 event was a casualty of the budding COVID-19 public health crisis, and the Golden Falcons were quarantined due to COVID-19 during the 2021 event.
The 13 ECC members that sponsor women's bowling will compete, in pools of seven and six, in five round-robin five-game Baker matches beginning at 8:05 a.m. on Friday. The top 12 teams, based on total pinfall, will then advance into a double-elimination bracket. The first seven rounds of the bracket will be contested in the best-of-seven Baker format. Its opening match will take place on Friday at 3:25 p.m.
Double-elimination play will continue at 8 a.m. on Saturday with five more rounds. Three teams will return on Sunday at 8 a.m. for the final double elimination round. The last two remaining squads will then compete in a Mega Match for the ECC Championship. Roberts Wesleyan College captured the 2021 title.
"We've spent the last week talking about 'energy' and how our high energy and positive attitudes are what pushes us to win matches," said Felician interim head coach Nicole Aumack. "The pattern for this event is longer than what we've seen recently, and we took advantage of (Thursday's) practice session to get a feel for this shot and to get in that competition mode."
Felician is in its eighth season as an intercollegiate program and its seventh in the ECC. The Golden Falcons enter the tournament with a dual-match won-lost record of 52-64. Senior right-hander Natalie Swindell (Beachwood, N.J./Toms River South) sits ninth on the conference Player Composite Performance Index. She is among the top 10 in the ECC in both traditional average (189.9) and Baker frame average (18.70). Freshman righty Sandra Hornor (Brick, N.J./Brick Memorial) was a two-time ECC Rookie of the Week.
The ECC champion automatically qualifies for the 2022 NCAA Championship event.
"As always, filling our frames will be a big key this weekend," Aumack said. "Making spares really comes down to confidence. We've worked hard on perfecting spare lines and making the necessary adjustments, not we just need to be confident enough to execute."
Felician University inspires and engages more than 2,300 undergraduate, graduate, and adult education students through programs in its schools of Arts & Sciences, Business, Nursing, and Education. In the past three years, Felician has ranked third in New Jersey in "Best Return on Investment for Private Colleges" in the PayScale.com College ROI Report and as the "Safest College Campus in New Jersey" by niche.com. With campuses in Rutherford and Lodi, New Jersey, the Franciscan values of social justice, compassion, and respect for human dignity serve as an inclusive foundation for transforming the lives of tomorrow's leaders. Felician 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.
