ROCHESTER, N.Y. (4/7/23) – With mega-match victories over Sacred Heart and North Carolina A&T, the No. 3 overall seed Arkansas State women’s bowling team advanced to the NCAA Regional Final that will take place Saturday afternoon at Bowl-A-Roll.

A-State (81-29) took the traditional game 1,048-993 over Sacred Heart overcoming a slow start in the opener. The Red Wolves trailed by 52 pins entering the eighth frame, but came away with the 55-pin margin. Faith Welch led A-State with a total of 234 with Brooklyn Buchanan (222), Karli VanDuinen (203) and Emma Stull (201) topping 200. Maggie Thoma added 188 pins in the winning total.

The Red Wolves rallied back and took the Baker total pinfall match 1,151-1,095 to earn the victory over Sacred Heart. A-State trailed by 45 pins after game one and the deficit swelled to 55 pins in game two. The Red Wolves cut the deficit by seven with a 220-213 advantage in game three and it decreased to 29 going into game five with a 215-196 margin in game four. A-State rolled a 278 in game five to post the 56-pin advantage.

Laura Garcia of North Carolina A&T rolled a 299 and carried the Aggies past A-State 1,090-1,014 for the traditional point. Buchanan led the Red Wolves with a game of 234 and Thoma added 221. VanDuinen (194), Stull (190) and Welch (175) bowled in the traditional game.

A-State forced a best-of-seven Baker series by taking the total pinfall 1,006-948. The Red Wolves took the first game of pinfall 208-207, but the Aggies came back to win game two and lead by 11 pins heading into game three. A-State took game three 206-197 to trail by two with two games to play. A resounding 40-pin margin in game four, 206-197, proved to be enough with game five in favor of the Red Wolves 201-181.

In the best of seven, A-State grabbed a 3-1 advantage, but the Aggies fought back to force a decisive game seven. After the Red Wolves won game five, 166-162, North Carolina A&T evened the series with 213-209 and 238-211 margins. A-State closed out the match and advanced to the championship with a 191-172 tally in game seven.

Sacred Heart and North Carolina meet in an elimination match Saturday morning with the winner meeting A-State at 2 p.m. (CT) in the Rochester regional final. With a win in the mega-match, A-State would punch its ticket to the NCAA Championship in Las Vegas while a loss would setup a decisive Baker best-of-seven series immediately after with the winner joining winners of the other three regions at the South Point Bowling Plaza.

For the latest on A-State bowling, follow the team on Twitter (@AStateBowling), Facebook (/AStateBowling) and Instagram (@redwolvesbowling).