VALLEY PARK, Mo. – The Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Women’s Bowling Tournament Championship has concluded with No. 1 seed McKendree University claiming their second consecutive league crown. The Bearcats took down the third-seeded University of Central Missouri Sunday afternoon at Bowlero Lakeside just on the outskirts of St. Louis.
The morning math between No. 2 Maryville and No. 3 Central Missouri only took two games with the Jennies winning both of those. In the Traditional game Central Missouri edged out the Saints with a 954-940 win before heading to the Baker game where they really hit their stride as they cruised to the 1,043-881 victory to clinch their spot in the Championship match against McKendree.
It was a tightly contested match in the Championship game in the afternoon session. Central Missouri was able to hang around with the top-seeded Bearcats throughout the Traditional game before McKendree pulled away for the 1,021-911 win. It was much of the same in the Baker with the Jennies making a push late with a handful of strikes in the fifth game, but McKendree was able to answer on their way to the 1,094-983 win to clinch their second league title.
With Sunday's victory, the No. 1 ranked Bearcats earned the GLVC's automatic bid to the 2022 NCAA Women's Collegiate Bowling Championships, which are scheduled to begin at four pre-determined regional sites (Rochester, NY, Erie, Pa., Arlington, Texas and Lansing, Mich.) on April 8-9, with the National Championships slated for April 15-16 at Wayne Webb's Columbus Bowl in Columbus, Ohio. The NCAA will unveil the 16 teams selected for the NCAA Tournament online at
www.NCAA.com at 4 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, March 31.
The Bearcats, who won the 2017 NCAA National title in women's bowling and were the national runners-up in 2018, will be making their sixth trip to the NCAA Tournament this season, as they are 11-7 all-time in the National event.