UMES Bowling Season Ends at National Championships
April 28, 2003
TULSA, OK—The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) Lady Hawks Bowling Team wrapped
up a very long season on Friday, April 25 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was a season that many teams wished had
lasted as long, as UMES competed as one of the ‘sweet sixteen’ teams for the
Intercollegiate Bowling Championships (IBC).
UMES accomplished a feat in getting to the Championships for the first time
in school history, as well as being the first Historically Black College or
University (HBCU), to ever roll in the ‘big dance.’ They came into the competition
ranked eighth in one poll and tenth in another. That average held true after
the first set of Baker Games which placed them ninth in
the standing.
The first day of competition, held on Thursday, seeded the teams as they bowled 32 games
with total pins determining first through sixteenth. After four more games the Lady Hawks were up to
eighth place and on the move. Unfortunately, a few bad breaks lowered the Lady Hawks to twelfth after 28
games, just two spots above soon to be National Champion, Central Missouri State University (CMSU).
After the final four games UMES stood in fifteenth place and was seeded to face the number two team,
Florida State University.
The Lady Hawks, led by seniors Lori Rumping and Krista King, were not worried. They had defeated the
Seminoles earlier this season and were looking to do it again. They took game one, in a best four out of
seven format, by a score of 212 to 192 and were looking for game two. Unfortunately FSU caught the
breaks. The Seminoles did not bowl over a 175 in the next four games, but nether did the Lady Hawks and FSU went on to win four games to one.
UMES wasn’t done yet.
Their scores were good enough to advance them to
the second round where they were faced with another Florida school in the Knights of the University of
Central Florida. Still stinging from the loss to Florida State, UMES got down early trailing by two games.
But the team didn’t give up, they stormed back to win games three and four to tie the match at
two-all.
Game five was critical. The clutch bowling of MaryEtta Lewis, Sandra
Maresca, and Vicky Gay kept it close, so close, that it came down to the tenth frame. The Knights finished
their games before UMES and the Hawks needed a spare to pull out the game but one pin didn’t fall and
UCF took game five by two pins. The Lady Hawks put up another fight in game six but their nemesis the
ten pin didn’t fall and UCF eliminated the Hawks from the 2003 IBC Championships.
CMSU defeated the Seminoles of Florida State in the finals.
Head Coach Sharon Brummell was very proud of her
young ladies. “We looked a little shaky at times, but when it came down to it they fought hard and gave
their best effort. We may not have won the title, but we had a great season, there are a lot of teams that did
not make the National Championship round, but we did, and the season’s culmination in Tulsa is something
to be very proud of,” she said.
“Look for us next year to be right back in the hunt with bowing becoming a
full-fledged NCAA sport we can really make an impact. I lose two wonderful ladies and two wonderful
bowlers in Krista King and Lori Rumping, but we are brining in Krista Kutler and couple of other surprises
that will have the Lady Hawks back in the Championship and making some headlines,” she added.
