BALTIMORE, Md. (Nov. 10, 2019)-The Morgan State Bears' bowling team grabbed four wins on the weekend at the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) #1 event held at Bowl America in Glen Burnie, Md. this past weekend.

The weekend was highlighted by three Morgan State players earning Top 20 honors among players bowling all six traditional games in the event. Sophomore, Ashanti Fernandes finished 10th in the individual standings with a 190 average. Junior Touri Holmes placed 17th with a 178.5 average and senior Diamond Hunter placed 18th with a 178 average.

The Bears also had standout Baker scoring by two of their players. Hunter posted an impressive 21.06 Baker frame average for 77 frames bowled through the weekend. On Sunday, Hunter blistered the lanes with a 23.48 for the day. Fernandes kept up her strong play on Sunday also, with a 19.27 frame average for Sunday's Baker rounds.

As a team Morgan State has a conference record of 3-7 on the weekend, placing them in a tie for 9th with Florida A&M. However, they are tightly bunched with five teams currently. The standings after MEAC #1 were as follows:

1. Maryland Eastern Shore, 10-0
2. North Carolina A&T, 9-1
3. Delaware State, 7-3
4. Monmouth, 7-3
5. UAB, 5-5
6. Howard, 5-5
7. Coppin State, 4-6
8. Florida A&M, 3-7
9. Morgan State, 3-7
10. Norfolk State, 1-9
11. Bethune-Cookman, 1-9

In Baker play on Friday Morgan earned one win on the day. It was the Battle of Baltimore with the Bears taking on cross town rival Coppin State. As most rivalries go, it was a close match through four games. In the final and deciding game, Morgan State stepped up with a clean game and put strikes together to finish with a 204 to Coppin's 147, with Morgan State winning 869 to 820. 

On Saturday, Morgan came out firing winning their first two matches in traditional play. In match #1 against 19th ranked UAB, the returning players of Hunter, Holmes and Fernandes shined by averaging 220.3 among all three players. Hunter fired a 210, Holmes a 215 and Fernandes led the team with a 236, en route to the Bears earning a hard fought victory 885-881 versus the Blazers.

The Bears followed up with a win against Bethune-Cookman to go 2-0 on the day, before dropping their last two matches against Florida A&M and Monmouth. 

Sunday started with the last match of round play against Maryland Eastern Shore. The Bears fell to the Hawks 956-831, with Fernandes and Holmes leading the team with a 196 and 189, respectively.

The event ended with two Best-of-7 Baker matches. In the first match against Bethune-Cookman, Morgan State won 4-1 with 3 games in the 180's. In the last match of the weekend, Norfolk State and Morgan went toe-to-toe the first four games. Morgan started strong with games of 190 and 221, but with NSU rolling a 197 and 137, the match was tied at a game apiece. The next two games saw the teams split again. With the match at 2-2 Norfolk State was able to close it out to take the match 4-2, with wins in Games 5 and 6 over the Bears.

Morgan State head coach Thomas Falbo said about the weekend, "We've had to cover a lot of ground over a short period of time. These ladies are stepping up in practice and it's great to see the fruits of their hard work payoff. We'll continue to work to get better as the oil transitions through the day."

Falbo continued, "Touri was able to find something Saturday late day that worked and she finished with two games over 185. Ashanti has improved so much in repeating shots and moving left to find oil when the outside dries up and scored so well on Saturday and Sunday, and Diamond wrecked the place on Sunday. Together we've fined tuned what was already a great game, so with her it's always going to be about getting the right ball and surface prep in her hand."

This was Morgan State's last event for the semester. They will compete next on January 17-19, 2020 at the Scott-Underwood Classic hosted by Bowie State in Pasadena, Md.