DAYTON, Ohio -- Three Notre Dame College Bowling squads advanced to the match play finals of the Orange & Black Classic in the Dayton area on Oct. 8 and 9. Hosted by the University of Pikeville, the men's division of the tournament was contested at Beaver-Vu Bowl in Beavercreek, while the women bowled at Poelking Lanes – South in Kettering.

The NDC varsity women stormed out of the gate with a 949 game, the weekend's highest score in the women's division, and topped the standings after each of five traditional team games on Saturday and Sunday's first set of four Baker games. After the host school jumped ahead in the second of four Baker sets, the Falcons closed the third set with games of 211 and 197 on the low-scoring College Bowling Medium No. 5 oil pattern to pull within seven pins of regaining the lead. At the conclusion of Sunday's fourth set, though, the team remained in second place.

With the top eight teams earning berths in the finals, Notre Dame moved on to face Shawnee State University in a best-of-three elimination match. After falling behind early in the first game, juniors Sarah Benedict and Hannah Klein rolled clutch strikes in the ninth and tenth frames, with Klein then converting a 4-pin to tie Shawnee at 178-178. The Falcons won the second game 198-149, but fell 156-223 in game three, forcing a two-frame roll-off in which Shawnee prevailed 47-38. Despite the loss, NDC still officially finished in second place, as USBC Collegiate determines points toward postseason advancement and national rankings based on the standings at the end of qualifying rounds.

Three Falcon women finished among the top ten individual competitors in the 138-bowler field.  Sophomore Rachel Foreback rolled a 224 game, sixth highest of the 390 games bowled in the women's division on Saturday, while averaging 192 for the day to finish fourth in the varsity division—and fifth overall—and earn a spot on the All-Tournament Team. Klein was seventh in the women's field with a 187 average, while freshman Alexis Jackson was named to the junior varsity All-Tournament Team after averaging 183 to finish second among JV women and eighth overall.
 

Meanwhile, over in Beavercreek, the Falcon men stood in third place in a 21-team field at the end of Saturday's competition and finished Sunday's Baker game round in fifth place. Like the women, they wound up being eliminated in the first round of match play, falling to No. 4 seed Milligan University. 

Junior Michael Wiese averaged 199, pacing the Falcons and finishing 20th among the 193 bowlers in the men's division.  Freshman Aiden Compton averaged 195 and finished 29th overall, while freshman Joshua Dohm rolled Notre Dame's highest individual game of 258. Wiese and fifth-year senior Anthony Doran contributed matching 235 scores to the effort.

The junior varsity Falcon women also made it to the first round of match play, qualifying fourth and beating a Pikeville squad in the first game before being outscored in the next two.

The season will keep rolling as the NDC bowlers head to Indianapolis on Oct. 15 and 16 for the Western Shootout at the fabled Western Bowl, now named Royal Pin Western.