HARROGATE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum University women's bowling team went 1-2 in Sunday's bracket matches to finish fourth at the 2021 Railsplitter Classic. The three-day, eight-team tournament was held at Hillcrest Lanes and hosted by Lincoln Memorial University.
In the Baker Best-of-7 game format, the Pioneers opened the bracket round with a 4-2 win over No. 23 Kentucky Wesleyan College. TU won the first game 194-178, but the Panthers evened the match with a 187-169 win in the second game. The Pioneers won the third game 228-200 and took a 3-1 lead in the match with a 220-188 win in the fourth. KWC won the fifth game 180-158, but TU closed out the match with a 203-171 win.
The Pioneers advanced to face host LMU and a chance to move onto the championship match. The 11th-ranked Railsplitters won the first two games 202-195 and 183-172. But Tusculum bounced back with three straight wins by scores of 189-161, 213-185 and 211-193. But LMU answered with a 236-151 win in the fourth and outlasted the Pioneers 211-193 in the deciding game to move onto the finals.
Tusculum would face Mercyhurst University in the third-place match and would fall 4-2 including a tough 169-165 in the sixth.
UAB claimed the team title by knocking off LMU 4-3 in the championship match as the Blazers rallied from a 3-1 deficit. LMU was second, followed by Mercyhurst, Tusculum, Kentucky Wesleyan, Valparaiso University, Spalding University and Belmont Abbey College.
The Pioneers went 7-6 on the weekend to move to 11-14 overall for the season.
