Bowling | 3/21/2025 9:55:00 PM
RALEIGH, N.C., March 21, 2025 - The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) teams completed the first day of the 2025 Bowling Championship on Friday at Buffaloe Lanes North in Raleigh, NC, with all eight of the league’s bowling programs in action.
The morning session saw three of the four Mega Matches end in 2-0 sweeps, with top-seed North Carolina A&T, second-seed Maryland Eastern Shore and fifth-seed Delaware State moving on in the winner’s bracket. Joining the Aggies, Hawks and Hornets in the winner's brackets were the Bears of No. 3 Morgan State who defeated the No. 6 Bison of Howard 2-1.
North Carolina A&T State took care of business against Norfolk State after winning the traditional game 942-718 and the baker total pinfall segment 844-689.
In traditional play, MEAC Rookie of the Year and First Team All-MEAC honoree Victorya White led the Aggies with a 256 score, while Norfolk State’s Jasmin Esquibel had the highest score of the match for NSU with a 174 total.
In Baker, the Aggies took early control by winning the first game 213-149, before following that with scores of 157-129, 172-126, 152-142 and 150-143.
No. 2 Maryland Eastern Shore put together a 2-0 victory over the No. 7 seed Coppin State. UMES narrowly won the traditional game by four pins, 865-861, led by 195 points from Ara Pitts and Gabriella Ochoa Hubbard with a 190 score. Abigail Brockington led Coppin State with 184 pins while Shakyia Johnson and Victoria Davis both recorded a 179 score.
UMES won by 89 pins in the baker games to advance in the winner's bracket. Maryland Eastern Shore won three of the five baker games over Coppin State (200-136, 173-170, 182-146, 184-189, 154-163).
In the No. 4/5 matchup between University of Alabama at Birmingham and Delaware State, the fifth-seeded Hornets won 2-0 to continue in the winner’s bracket to face N.C. A&T.
DSU won by a 66-pin margin in the traditional game, 931-865, led by 215 pins from Emily Breidegam.
After dropping the first two games 181-194 and 176-178, the Hornets kicked it into gear winning the last three baker games 202-152, 174-172 and 224-172 to claim the 957-868 win over the Blazers.
The last game of the morning session to finish was between No. 3 Morgan State and No. 6 Howard, which went to the best of seven baker format tiebreaker. MSU won the traditional format by 130 pins, 895-765, led by 202 pins from Ayanna Carroll, but HU won the baker format 856-810 to tie the match score at 1-1.
Morgan State came out strong in the best of seven baker tiebreaker winning four consecutive games (201-142, 198-179, 174-134, 185-124) to remain in the winner's bracket.
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The afternoon session began with two 2-0 games seeing the first teams eliminated in No. 6 Howard and No. 8 Norfolk State.
No. 4 UAB defeated the Spartans 815-678 in the traditional round with Jordan Shipp leading the Blazers with 176 pins. Lashuana Burrus led NSU with 162 pins. In the baker round, UAB won by 134 pins, 857-723 to advance to the next round of the tournament.
In match 6 between No. 6 Howard and No. 7 Coppin State, the Eagles earned the victory 2-0 after winning 842-792 in the traditional format and 874-776 in the baker round. CSU sophomore Victoria Davis led the team with a 220 score in the traditional round.
In the winner’s bracket, No. 1 North Carolina A&T State and No. 5 Delaware State went to the best-of-seven tiebreaker round after splitting the traditional and baker rounds. NC A&T won the traditional game 952-877 led by a 231-pin performance from Maya Avilez and 211 pins from Victorya White.
DSU edged out NC A&T by 14 pins in the baker round with a score of 950-936 forcing the tiebreaker round. In the best-of-seven round, after dropping the first game 201-232 to the Hornets, the Aggies surged back and won the next four games (178-177, 188-156, 224-177, 186-166) to claim the match 2-1.
Match 8 between No. 2 Maryland Eastern Shore and No. 3 Morgan State was equally exciting to watch as the teams traded wins in the traditional and baker rounds. MSU got out to the early lead taking the traditional round 872-854, but UMES won the baker round 860-782 to tie the score at 1-1 and force the best-of-seven tiebreaker.
In the tiebreaker round, UMES won the first match 181-172 before MSU took game two 221-146. From there the Hawks won the next three games (184-163, 216-214, 191-180) to win 4-1 and take the match 2-1.
Saturday’s action begins at 9 a.m. with a pair of elimination matches: No. 3 Morgan State against No. 4 University of Alabama – Birmingham and No. 5 Delaware State against No. 7 Coppin State. The winner’s bracket semifinal match will pit the top two seeds, North Carolina A&T State versus Maryland Eastern Shore, while one more elimination match also gets underway at 2 p.m.
For more information on the 2025 MEAC Bowling Championship, visit Championship Central.