Championship Central |
Tournament Bracket
BELLEVILLE, Ill. – McKendree University earned the 2021 Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) women’s bowling championship on Sunday, running through the seven-team bracket as the top seed in the league’s inaugural event at Bel-Air Bowl in Belleville, Illinois.
The Bearcats went a perfect 3-0 over the weekend, capping the title run with their second victory of the tournament against 3-seed University of Central Missouri. Unlike Saturday’s winners’ bracket match, however, the Jennies snuck through the Baker team total by just 21 pins to force a best-of-7 series. McKendree bounced back to win the mega match after taking the best-of-7 in six games.
Hope Gramly (277) and Maranda Pattison (251) led the Bearcats in the traditional game, as McKendree outscored UCM, 1,137-961. Tatum Ruffalo rolled a team-best 217 in the leg for the Jennies. After UCM earned the Baker win, the Bearcats bookended their best-of-7 series victory with a 226 and 247 for the right to hoist the trophy.
UCM slipped by Maryville University in Sunday’s morning contest to determine who would battle McKendree for the league championship. The Saints earned a 1,087-932 traditional round win, but – just like Friday’s match between the two – the Jennies stormed back in the five-game Baker total before winning the best-of-seven series to earn a berth in the final.
An All-GLVC First and Second will be announced in the coming weeks, including major awards such as Player, Coach, and Freshman of the Year. For more information about the 2021 NCAA tournament selection show on March 31, click
here.