2011 NCAA Bowling Championship Central

The reigning MEAC champion Maryland Eastern Shore Lady Hawks were selected today as part of the eight-team field that will compete for the 2011 National Collegiate Women's Bowling Championship beginning April 14-16, at the Skore Lanes in Taylor, Michigan

The Lady Hawks (98-30) enter tournament play ranked second in the National Tenpins Coaches Association (NTCA) poll. UMES, who captured their fifth MEAC Championship this season, will be making their eighth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Championship.

In 2008, the Lady Hawks defeated Arkansas State University, 4-2, to capture the national championship at Thunder Alley in Omaha, Nebraska.

The victory was the first national title in any sport, for Maryland Eastern Shore and the first women's bowling national championship for the MEAC. 

The 2011 NCAA Bowling Championship begins with qualifying rounds in which each team will bowl one five-person regular team game against each of the other seven teams participating in the championship for a total of seven games. Teams will be seeded for bracket play based on their win-loss record during the qualifying rounds.

Teams will then compete in best-of-seven-games Baker matches in a double-elimination tournament. In the Baker format, each of the five team members, in order, bowls a complete frame until a complete (10-frame) game is bowled. A Baker match tied 3½ games to 3½ games after seven games will be decided by a tiebreaker using the Modified Baker format.

The eight-team field includes the following teams, all selected at large:

Arkansas State
Central Missouri
Fairleigh Dickinson
Kutztown
Maryland Eastern Shore
Nebraska
Sam Houston State
Vanderbilt

The 2011 NCAA Bowling Championship final will be air in a tape-delayed format on ESPN on Sunday, April 17 at 2:30 p.m. (EST).