EAST NORRITON, Pa. - - The top-seeded Wilmington University bowling team fell to the elimination bracket on Saturday, falling to No. 4 Caldwell, 2-0, in the second round of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Championship hosted at the Our Town Alley.
In the second round mega-match, Caldwell won the team score event 897-805 to take a 1-0 lead. They were then able to sweep the Wildcats by winning the Baker Match, 950-898.
Genna Closs led the Wildcats with a 188 in the traditional round while Sydney Jones and KC Miller added like scores of 169. Carolece Henry scored a 148 while Desiree Dent added a 131. Caldwell had a student-athlete with a 201 and another with 198 to power the Cougars in the team-scoring victory.
The Cougars, who already played a match earlier in the day, defeating No. 5 Felician, 2-0, kept the hot hand into the total pinfall Baker match. The Cougars took the first game by a large margin, 215-179, and then the second game by an almost identical score of 214-178 to lead 429-357 overall. The Cougars again scored over 200 in the third game, going 212-181 to take a 641-538 lead with two games remaining.
The Wildcats fought and took the fourth game, 183-149, but still trailed by 69 pins going into the fifth and final game. The Wildcats again came out on top in the fifth game, 177-160, but it wasn't enough to close the overall gap, falling, 950-898, as the Cougars won the best-of-three mega-match, 2-0.
Carolece Henry had a combined 183 in the Baker match while KC Miller collected a 181. Sydney Jones added a 179 followed closely by Genna Closs' 178 and Desiree Dent's 177. The Cougars had three student-athletes over 200, led by Rhianna Smith's 215.
The top-seeded Wildcats will now face No. 6 Holy Family in an elimination match on Saturday morning. The double-elimination tournament continues with another round on Saturday and a now a possibility of three mega-matches on Sunday for the Wildcats to win the CACC Championship.
