ARLINGTON, Texas- After a shaky start to day one, the Lady Hawks of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) rallied back over the next two days to take second-place at the Prairie View A&M Invitational, held at the International Training Campus in Arlington, Texas. 

T'nia Falbo (Greensburg, Pa.) and Megan Buja (Rockford, Ill.) led the charge, taking second and third overall in individual standings and guided UMES to a perfect 5-0 record on day two and a 2-1 record on the final day, missing first place by literally two pins in game six of the finals.

After opening day one 2-3 in four-game Baker sets, UMES figured out the lanes and rolled in team games on day two.  The Hawks posted wins over No. 6 Central Missouri (1034-976), La. Tech (1099-864), host Prairie View A&M (982-946), No. 1 Valparaiso (1125-941) and No. 6 Vanderbilt (1077-979).

Falbo was on fire, rolling a season-high 280 in the Valpo win while Buja piled on with a 264 in that match.  Falbo would post scores of 210, 235, 203 and 248 as well and tally an 1176.  She averaged a 235.2 and finished in second place in among all bowlers in the 12 teams.

Buja also tallied solid scores, including a 237, 233, 182 and 206 to total am 1122 and finish in third place overall.  She averaged a 224.4 and her 264 was a career high.

Both were named to the All-Tournament Team.

UMES was solid top to bottom, getting games of 233, 240, 197, 192 and 224 from Anggie Ramirez (Bogota, Colombia), to total a 1086 and average a 217.2.  Paula Vilas (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) had two 200-plus games (200, 222) and averaged a 198.6.

On the final day, after opening with a 4-0 win over Jackson State, the fourth-seeded Hawks took on top-seeded Arkansas State and easily rolled over the Red Wolves, 4-1, posting wins in games one, three, four and five and posting a 239-194 win in game five.  The ASU win set-up a match with Vanderbilt for the tournament title.  The two rivals went back and forth with UMES taking a 202-200 narrow win in game five to go up 3-2.  In the sixth game the Hawks came up just short, falling 214-213.  Two more pins would have given them the title, but it wasn't meant to be as Vandy would win game seven, 234-214.

The Hawks went 9-4 overall at the event and improved to 71-26 on the season.

For more information, visit www.umeshawks.com