LAS VEGAS – The University of Pikeville women's bowling team rebounded from a late-night loss on Thursday to beat the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater 4-2 in the Intercollegiate Team Championships on Friday morning at the South Point Bowling Plaza in Las Vegas.
 
The Bears will now play Newman (Kan.) on Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Pacific. Newman advanced with a 4-3 win over Louisiana Tech to remain alive.
 
UPike had 36 strikes and only eight open frames in the win over Wisc.-Whitewater. Junior Victoria Hines and freshman Katarina Hagler led the Bears with eight strikes each. Grad student Kristina Catoe and junior Brianna Rogers had seven apiece, with grad student Kelsey Cummings adding six.
 
Game 1: UPike used a trick as old as Bears' bowling itself, go fast, post strong scores and let your opponent see them. The Bears opened with 10 consecutive strikes and rolled to a 288-205 win.
 
Game 2: The Warhawks bounded back in the second game for a 224-205 win to even the match. They opened with three straight strikes and did that again in frames 7-8-9. UPike matched them in the latter rounds but it wasn't enough. Hines continued her strong performance with strikes in both of her frames.
 
Game 3: Wisc.-Whitewater struck in five of its first seven frames to win 224-202 and go up 2 games to 1. Rogers and Catoe each had a pair of strikes.
 
Game 4: The Bears ran through the lineup with strikes starting in the second frame to pulled out a 198-192 win to even the match at 2-2. It survived three open frames and a four-bagger from the Warhawks, beginning in the sixth frame.
 
Game 5: Leading 184-175 heading to the 10^th, the Bears needed Catoe to be the All-American she is, and she delivered. Wisc.-Whitewater went strike-strike-nine, forcing Catoe to strike twice. She did better than that, striking out for the 224-212 win. Hagler and Cummings had two strikes apiece.
 
Game 6: Trailing heading into the ninth frame, the Bears took advantage of an open ninth frame, striking on their final five throws to seal the 224-212 win and the match. Again, Hagler and Cummings struck both throws.