Sinking Spring, Pa. — Head coach Arthur O'Connor and the Adelphi bowling team headed up to Pennsylvania last weekend to compete for an East Coast Conference title.
On the first day of qualifying, the Panthers finished with a record of 1-3 with their sole win being over Daemen by a score of 843-816. The victory slotted Adelphi in as the seven seed in the playoffs, giving it a first round bye.
In the double elimination playoff, the 'Cats narrowly missed a thrilling upset of #2 D'Youville as they fell in the seventh and final game, only dropping game seven by 13 pins.
The loss now put the Panthers into the lower portion of the bracket in an elimination match against #9 St. Thomas Aquinas. Adelphi jumped out to an early 2-0 lead but the Spartans battled back to tie it until the 'Cats turned it on and took the match, 4-2.
Next up was #6 Daemen and Adelphi went down 2-1 early, but the Panthers buckled down and won the next three games by 20+ pins each to pull off the upset.
Waiting for Brown and Gold was local rival and #4 seed Molloy. This match was as close as it gets as it included a tie in game two and three matches decided by less than five pins. In the tiebreaker game that would decide the winner, Adelphi needed a strike but the ball turned ever so slightly at the end and only took out nine pins. The 'Cats run would end in sixth place.
Tiffany Wong led the team in fill percentage with 76.8% and single pin spare conversion rate with a 92%. Giana Giampapa was not far behind with an 88% single pin spare conversion rate. Wong also had the highest spare percentage with 65.2%, followed by Skye Tadani with a 64.2%.
Giampapa had the Panthers' highest strike rate at 37.5% and led the team with 39 strikes. Erica DeJesus was second with 37 strikes.
The season as a whole was a success for Adelphi as Giampapa, Wong, freshmen Gayle Lopez and Payton Hoffay among others continued to get better as the year progressed.
"I'm proud of our productive season and looking forward to next year with everyone returning," O'Connor said. "I think with improvement we should be able to contend for an ECC title."
