St. Charles, Mo. - The Columbia College women's bowling team was back in action over the weekend when they traveled to St. Charles, Missouri to compete in the 10^th annual Lindenwood Lion Classic.  This tournament was hosted by the defending National Champion Lindenwood Lady Lions.  The Cougars earned their highest finish in program history, making it to the championship match before eventually finishing second out of the ten team field.

Saturday started with three team games which were used to determine the teams' starting position for the match play portion of the tournament.  The Cougars totaled 2,351 in the three games, which was eighth out of the ten teams.   They then moved into round robin baker match play, where they bowled two Baker style games (each bowler bowls two frames in a single game) with the total pinfall determining the winner of each match.  They bowled 8 out of the 10 two game matches to close out Saturday, going 4-4 to move up to fifth place at the end of Saturday.
Sunday started with the remaining two matches, which the Cougars won to improve to 6-4 in the match play portion of the tournament.  Columbia was seeded 5^th out of the 8 remaining teams that made it to bracket play.   The team that won two out of three baker games won each bracket match.

The Cougars started bracket play against the fourth seeded Mount Mary University Blue Angels where they lost the first game before coming back and winning the second and third game to advance and face Newman in their second match.  Again, the Cougars dropped behind by losing the first game before battling back and winning the second and third games, coming from a 31-pin deficit in the third game to advance. In a defining moment for the bowling program, the Cougars faced off against Lindenwood University and started the first game with the front five strikes which set the tone for a sweep of the defending National Champion and host team in two straight games to move on to the championship match against Ancilla College.  The Cougars were the only team to go undefeated in bracket play.

The championship match consisted of the best three out of five games.  Ancilla got off to a fast start to take the first game, with Columbia rallying the second game to tie the match.  The third game was won by Ancilla, but Columbia responded with a win in game four to take it to a deciding fifth game.  In that game, Ancilla proved to be too much and pulled away for the victory, with the Cougars earning the 2^nd place finish.

 The bowling team looks to continue their hot hand when they travel Topeka, Kan. to compete in the 2018 Jayhawk Collegiate Challenge on November 3 and 4.