Bracket | Photos
WICHITA, Kan. -- For the third straight season, the University of Pikeville women's bowling team is heading to the ITC Quarterfinals without a loss after topping Bowling Green (Ohio) 4-1 in the first round and Grand View (Iowa) 4-3 in the second on Thursday at Northrock Lanes.
UPIKE picked up the No. 4 seed in the morning's qualifying and took care of business twice as the favorite. No. 13 Bowling Green was taken care of in a hurry, while the match with No. 5 Grand View was tied up three times before the Bears got hot in the final game.
Needing a big performance to make sure it headed to the quarterfinals, UPIKE came through in the seventh game, at one point putting together six straight strikes to win the game convincingly at 245-173.
Megan Hedgespeth came off the bench to help get the rally started, rolling a strike in her last attempt of the sixth game before following up with another strike in the seventh. Reserve Karlee Evans got into the act as well, finishing off the final game with a strike of her own.
With the hard-fought win over the Vikings, UPIKE moved on to a rematch of the 2014 ITC National Championship against ninth-seeded Robert Morris (Ill.) which upset top-seeded Wichita State on Thursday. The defending national champs won 4-2 over the Shockers despite a late rally to send it to a seventh game.
The Bears and Robert Morris are scheduled to open play in the winner's bracket at 2:30 p.m. ET with the winner playing again in the final four at 6:30 p.m. The loser will drop down to the loser's bracket and play again at 4:15 p.m.
