Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) maintained their second place ranking in the latest National Tenpins Coaches Association (NTCA) poll.  The Lady Hawks, winners of their last two tournaments, have gone 27-7 since the last poll and posted first-place finishes in their last two events.

UMES (66-18) took almost the entire month of December off but returned with a vengeance, being paced by junior Martha Perez who has earned back-to-back All-Tournament Team and MEAC Bowler of the Week honors. Perez has led the Hawks to wins at the 14-team Mid-Winter Classic, hosted by Arkansas State and the 19-team Lady Bulldog Classic hosted by Bowie State.

UMES received four of the possible 20 first place votes and tallied 523 points, second to Vanderbilt (VU) who posted 556 points and garnered 13 of the 20 first-place votes. The VU Commodores (29-10) remained the nation's top team.  Vanderbilt was idle since the last voting but posted wins at the UCM Greater Ozark Invitational and UMES' Eastern Shore Hawk Classic prior to the December poll.  VU will be in action this weekend, along with UMES at the KU Golden Bear Invitational.  They will join 25 other teams, including 16 of the nation's top-20 teams, including nine of the top 10.

The MEAC was well represented in the poll as Delaware State was third.  The Hornets (56-14) earned three first place votes and clinched the conference's Northern Division, since the last poll, upsetting the four-time conference champion Hawks.

Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) moved up to fourth place.  The Knights (37-16) won their last two events.  The University of Central Missouri climbed into fifth place.  The Jennies (38-18) have won 21 of their last 24 matches, coming in second to UMES at the Mid-Winter Classic.

Arkansas State (42-21), Adelphi (48-20), Nebraska (33-19), New Jersey City (34-20) and St. Francis (N.Y.) (39-16) rounded out the nation's top ten teams.

The conference also saw three other teams in the top-20 as Florida A&M (35-16), Norfolk State

(43-27) and Morgan State (41-39) rounded out the final three spots.

UMES is facing 16 of the top-20 teams at Kutztown this weekend.