BATON ROUGE, La. -- The 14th-seeded University of Pikeville men's bowling team made a strong push in the Intercollegiate Team Championship (ITC) Contender's Bracket on Friday before falling to No. 6 Lindenwood-Belleville (Ill.) 4-3 in the fifth round.

After collecting wins in its first two matches of the day in the double-elimination event, UPIKE finished the ITCs tied for seventh overall, which is the highest finish in program history. The Bears had finished eighth two previous times in 2008 and 2009.

The Bears fell to the contender's bracket after losing to McKendree (Ill.) in Thursday's opening round. Early Friday morning, UPIKE won its first match against No. 11 Lawrence Tech (Mich.) 4-2, followed by a 4-1 win over No. 7 Robert Morris (Ill.).

Just three wins away from reaching the championship match TV show, the Bears' run finally came to an end with a 4-3 loss to Lindenwood-Belleville in the fifth round. Scores in the best-of-7 series went in Lindenwood's favor 136-202, 176-133, 178-169, 179-199, 203-180, 171-186 and 205-187.

This was UPIKE's third straight trip to the ITC and eighth appearance overall. Josh Encarnacion was the lone senior at the event, ending his career after leading the Bears to the ITC in three of his four seasons.  

-UPIKE-