Both Bowling Teams Take High Marks into Bracket Play at Spartan Clash

St. CHARLES, Mo. – Powered by excellent team showings on Saturday, both Avila bowling teams entered bracket play in the top halves of their respective fields before both teams bowed out in the first round of the bracket at the Clash of the Spartans event hosted by Missouri Baptist this weekend.

In a somewhat unique event that featured a much smaller field than the Eagles have grown accustomed to lately, all teams at the Clash of the Spartans bowled a total of 19 baker matches across the weekend before a single-elimination tournament on Sunday. This included matches against a “vacant” team (to bring both fields to an even number of participants) where the actually competing team needed to surpass a certain unmoving target score to earn a win.

In these conditions, both Eagle teams excelled early in the event. The Avila women went 6-6 in their 12 matches on Saturday but started Sunday by winning their first three head-to-head matches to ultimately complete pool play with a 10-9 mark, good for fourth-best in the field. Top-seeded Ottawa lost only twice in pool play – and both of those times were against the Eagles, two showcase wins for a second-year program.

The Avila men, meanwhile, picked up more than a few wins on Saturday: nine of them, in fact, against only three losses – the best mark among any team on the first day of the event. After winning their first three matches Sunday morning, the Eagles cooled off slightly, but still exited pool play with a 12-7 mark and were seeded third after some confusing positioning determinations.

Regardless, both Eagle teams were bounced in the first round of bracket play. On the women’s side, fourth-seeded Avila fell in straights to Columbia, though the score in the second game was tight, 186-179; the Avila men won their first match but dropped the next two in the best-of-three format against Peru State. Hastings was seeded outside of the top three in both brackets but sprung a couple of upsets to earn shocking wins in both fields.

Up next, Avila bowling continues its busy fall semester with one final road trip coming up this weekend when the Eagles head east to Louisville, Kentucky for an All-NAIA Invitational that figures to be one of the biggest events Avila participates in this season. Stay tuned to avilaathletics.com and Avila Bowling on social media to find ways to watch and follow along.