BATON ROUGE, La. -- For the first time since 2015, the University of Pikeville women's bowling team advanced to the semifinals of the winner's bracket at the Intercollegiate Team Championships with a pair of wins on Thursday at the Raising Cane's River Center.

In the 16-team, double-elimination bracket, the Bears qualified sixth in the morning before going on to top No. 11 Stephen F. Austin (Texas) 4-1 in the opening round. After a brief break, the Bears added to their successful day with another 4-1 win, this time over No. 3 Maryland Eastern Shore, in the second round.

UPIKE is now just two wins away from playing for a national title for the first time since 2014, the last year that it played in the TV round on Saturday. Play on Friday starts at 2 p.m. ET for the Bears against No. 7 Webber International (Fla.).

Even with a loss, the Bears would still be in good position in the contender's bracket finals where they could play themselves into the final four with a single win.

In the 4-1 win over Stephen F. Austin, UPIKE posted game scores of 169-181, 181-155, 193-187, 190-147 and 190-179. Against Maryland Eastern Shore, the Bears won by scores of 182-144, 174-183, 203-189, 181-164 and 164-130.

During the morning's qualifying, UPIKE tallied a total pin fall of 4,376 through 24 Baker games to be seeded sixth in the 16-team event. Wisconsin-Whitewater qualified first, Wichita State (Kan.) was second and Maryland Eastern Shore rounded out the top three.

-UPIKE-