Fayetteville State Repeats As 2024 CIAA Women’s Bowling Championship
SALEM, VIRGINIA – The Broncos of Fayetteville State University repeated as the 2024 Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Women’s Bowling championship over Virginia Union University at AMF Lee-Hi Lanes in Salem, VA. This was the Broncos fifth conference title. Virginia Union finished as conference runner-up’s, while Bowie State University claimed third-place honors.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Day two started with round 2 featuring the winner’s bracket of FSU, BSU, VUU, and LC while ECSU, JCSU, SU, and VSU battled it out in the loser’s bracket in hopes of bowling another round. FSU jumped to an early 1-0 lead with a 180-160 win in game one. FSU would then answer with a four-game sweep victory by winning the next three games with scores of 202-103, 244-126, and 191-156, respectively. The Broncos 4-1 series win would send the Blue Bears to the loser’s bracket to face the winner of the Johnson C. Smith and Bowie State match.
Virginia Union’s match facing Bowie State caused an upset as they defeated the No. 2 seed to push them in to the loser’s bracket. The Panthers took control early, winning the first two games 194-191 and 188-140. The Bulldogs found their pace in the third game to win 199-167. The Panthers regrouped and put their foot on the pedal to seal the last two games with a win of 165-148 and 181-150.
In match 8, Golden Bulls of JCSU and Bears of SU went to a 4-2 win in JCSU’s favor. JCSU advanced to the next round to play the Bulldogs of Bowie State.
Match 10 against ECSU and LC was a hard-fought battle to the end. The Blue Bears and the Vikings went back-to-back wins for the first five games, leaving the score tied 2-2, the Blue Bears gained momentum to push through the last two games to defeat the Vikings 4-2. The Blue Bears advanced to play the Bulldogs in the chance to fight to get out of the loser’s bracket.
Match 12 between BSU and LC was a victory for BSU. BSU took control early, to sweep all four games with a score of 205-168, and 188-154, 172-157, 149-125. The Blue Bears dominated the next two games with scores of 147-115, and 153-136 to tie the series 2-2. The Bears would go on to secure the win by winning the next two games 151-133, and 149-129.
BSU’s push the along to face Virginia Union in the match prior to the championship. Virginia Union went on to sweep Bowie State 4-0 with scores of 160-152, 203-201, 180-176, 210-180 to send them to the championship game against Fayetteville State. The final match featured regular season division winner Fayetteville State (South) and Virginia Union. Fayetteville State wasted no time in the championship game by defeating the Panthers 4-1. The Broncos scores against the Panthers were 194-170,190-146, 212-216, 225-145, 183-169.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
After bowling a great championship weekend, five deserving bowlers were named to the 2024 CIAA All-Tournament Team . For her efforts in helping her team secure the team title, Paige Rockwell of Fayetteville State was also named Food Lion Women’s Bowling Tournament MVP in addition to receiving all-tournament honors. Adding to their success, the Broncos walked away with this year’s Academic Award finishing with a team GPA of 3.69.
Paige Rockwell, Fayetteville State
Amaree Durfee, Virginia Union
Ericka Reed, Fayetteville State
TaVera Johnson, Bowie State
Brooke Smith, Shaw University
