(Photo: UMES)

WILMINGTON, Del.- The University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s women’s bowling team started off slowly once again on Sunday morning at the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference No. 1 meet of the season falling to first-year affiliate member University of Alabama-Birmingham 927-868 to open Baker competition.

The Hawks (23-12, 8-2 MEAC) then responded strong by knocking off four straight opponents to finish the event 8-2. The Shore took second by virtue of a head-to-head victory against North Carolina A&T State, which had a matching 8-2 record.

“We wanted to get out of the first MEAC meet undefeated, but fell short to Delaware and UAB,” head coach Kayla Bandy said. “Going into the second MEAC in second leaves us room for improvement and a good base to stand on.”

National Tenpins Coaches Association No. 16 UAB won the event with a 9-1 record.

“The pattern was very demanding this weekend,” Bandy said. “It called for us to play really steep angles through the heads and rely on skills we have not had to use so far this season. We had moments of greatness where we would go 30 clean frames in a row, but we also had 130’s and 140’s sprinkled into the mix. I thought that Cayla Hicks (Salem, Virginia) did a good job of stepping up when we needed her in the 10th frame. It was a team effort to grind out the wins that we brought home today.

The Shore (No. 7 NTCA) topped Coppin State (940-826) and Howard (911-700) in the middle of the day and then got by Norfolk State 865-793.

The final match of the day was a, 864-782 win against NTCA No. 23 Monmouth.

Paulina Torres (Ponce, Puerto Rico) came into the lineup late in the day against Monmouth and contributed to the victory.

“When I took my fill shots throughout the day I didn’t have the right ball motion to play with my team to the left,” Torres said. “So in the practice pair I practiced to the right and saw that I could get to the headpin consistently and make my spares”.

Eastern Shore bowled very well with the exception of a couple matches and recorded the highest pinfall of the event and averaged 179.7 — nearly two pins higher than the next team.

“I feel like this weekend the lane conditions were hard and the approaches were very slippery, but I was trying to stay calm and hit the head pin and making my spare for the team,” senior Alexandra Hernandez (Maracaibo, Venezuela) said.

The Hawks will next host the Hawk Classic Nov. 16-18 at Millsboro Lanes in Millsboro, Delaware.