SMYRNA, Tenn. --- The Tusculum University women's bowling team recorded a pair of wins on Saturday including a victory six-pin victory over a top-10 program in day two action of the Columbia 300 Music City Classic.
The three-day, 30-team tournament is being held at Smyrna Lanes and hosted by Vanderbilt University. This year's field is one of the most talented ones in the history of the event as 14 of the nation's top-20 teams are participating.
The highlight of the day came in the Pioneers' third traditional match on Saturday as TU edged sixth-ranked Youngstown State, 865-859. Tusculum freshman Emilee Horton rolled a 228 to lead the Black & Orange while senior Alexa Tieto posted a 198. In the win, Savannah Price bowled 152 and Allison Robbins posted a 145. TU volleyball All-American libero Carly Sosnowski rolled a Saturday-best 142 and is making her collegiate bowling debut this weekend.
Tusculum opened the day facing top-ranked and defending NCAA champion McKendree as the Bearcats won 1070-750. TU followed with an 893-881 win over Valparaiso as Robbins led the charge with 221 and Tieto bowled a 211 for her best game of the day.
Following the win over the Youngstown State, Tusculum would face two more nationally-ranked powers in No. 20 Wisconsin-Whitewater and No. 4 Arkansas State. Wisconsin-Whitewater won 987-920 while Arkansas State posted a 1066-739 win in the final game of the day. In the Wisconsin-Whitewater match, Robbins posted the best TU score of the day with her 245.
Tieto finished 60th individually with her five-game series of 948. Robbins was 67th with 935, Horton rolled a 919 series for 77th and Price finished 109th with 785. Sosnowski finished 130th of 180 bowlers with a 580 series.
The Pioneers remain 27th in the tournament standings as thy bowled a 4,167 total in their five traditional matches and have a pinfall of 8,368 on the weekend.
McKendree remained undefeated at 10-0 this weekend and have a total pinfall of 10,606 and are ahead of second place Sam Houston State (10.420).
Tusculum will play a Baker Best-of-Seven match with Aurora on Sunday morning in the bracket portion of the tournament.
