LIVE VIDEO / NEC FRONT ROW
BROOKLYN, N.Y. - The LIU Brooklyn bowling team is headed to Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania this weekend, to take part in the first Northeast Conference meet of the season. The two-day event, co-hosted by Saint Francis University and Duquesne will begin with four best-of-seven baker matches on Saturday, Dec. 2 at 12:30 p.m.
All seven NEC members will be in attendance including Fairleigh Dickinson, Sacred Heart, St. Francis Brooklyn, Saint Francis University and bowling conference members Caldwell and Duquesne.
The No. 16 Blackbirds were ranked fourth out of the six teams in the NEC preseason poll, behind No. 14 SFU, No. 9 Sacred Heart and No. 8 FDU, in a league where all seven teams are nationally ranked. LIU currently sports a 31-18 record thus far in 2017-18, as the team enters its' fifth event of the season.
The Blackbirds are coming off of a successful showing at the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore Hawk Classic two weeks ago, going 2-1 on the final day to take 7th place overall with a 187.8 team average and an 8-5 record.
Three Blackbirds shined with 200+ averages in the event. Senior Lauren McKowen just edged out freshman Kellie Frain and sophomore Tyler Karpinecz for the top spot on the team. McKowen ranked 14th overall with a 201.8 average. Frain (201.2) ranked 15th individually, while Karpinecz (201.0) stood 50th in total pins (804) in only four games. Senior Alyssa Balicki was next, ranking 23rd with a 193.2 average, followed by classmate Kristina Genova at 181.4, which was 40th on the individual list.
Following the UMES Classic, Frain was named NEC Rookie of the Week for the first time in her career. She led all NEC rookie competitors in overall frame average (20.14) en-route to an .871 filled frames percentage. Frain also converted 90.0 percent of single-pin spare attempts and doubled on 48.5 percent of her chances.
The Blackbirds will play six best-of-seven baker matches in total over the two day meet. On Saturday, the day will begin with Sacred Heart, followed by SFBK, Duquesne and finish with SFU. Sunday's pin action starts with FDU at 9:05 a.m. then Caldwell, as LIU wraps up the round robin event.