NEC Top 12 Games of 2012: NEC Top 12 Games of 2012: #4

NEC Top 12 Games of 2012:

#4 – BOWL: Fairleigh Dickinson vs. Nebraska (FDU 4-3) – 4/13/12

The 2012 season was a particularly strong season for NEC bowling. There were seemingly enough moments to make a top 12 list from the past bowling season alone. First up was the Northeast Conference Championships, held in late March at Bowl-O-Rama in Reading, PA. The field featured five of the top 15 teams in the entire country, including the top two seeds, Fairleigh Dickinson and Sacred Heart. On Championship Sunday in the best of seven Baker, double elimination tournament, the Knights survived an elimination match against Jersey City to earn a place against the Pioneers in the final. After grabbing a 3-0 lead, the Pioneers dropped the next three games, sending the championship match to a 7^th and deciding game. The Game 7, the Pioneers got off to a red hot start, rolling five straight strikes. SHU was able to hold off the nationally ranked #1 Knights to take Game 7 and the 2012 tournament title in thrilling fashion, 235-189.

The NEC would go on to send two teams into the eight team field of the 2012 NCAA Tournament, as both the Knights and the Pioneers were selected. The Pioneers would have the favor returned to them against UMES, the defending NCAA champs, and a team SHU was previously unbeaten against. Sacred Heart found themselves down 3-0, battled back to force a game seven, only to fall 205-187 in the seventh game. In their second match of the double elimination tournament, the Pioneers were sent home in a six game loss to Valparaiso.

The other representative carrying the NEC banner into the NCAA Tournament was the FDU Knights, who had won the 2010 NCAA National Championship. After a first round win against Arkansas State, the Knights would return to the lanes for the second time on the day to meet the Nebraska Cornhuskers for a spot into the Final Four. The drama that played out in front of the national spotlight at Freeway Lanes in Wickliffe, OH would be more than enough to land this battle at the #4 spot on the Top 12 NEC Games of 2012…

Just like in the NEC final, the Knights got off to a slow start, falling behind 3-0. Nebraska defeated FDU 213-254 in game one, 235-145 in game two, and 238-194 in game three to grab the commanding lead. In game four, with their backs against the wall, the Knights started to make up ground. FDU received strikes from Michelle Hunzaker, Liat Vizenfeld, Brianno Carlo, and Danielle McEwan to lead the Knights to a 193-169 game four win to stay alive. In game five, it came down to the final frame. The Knights turned to their anchor, McEwan, who cold-blooded, delivered three straight 10^th frame strikes to send things into a game six. Trailing by just one game, the sixth proved to be a wide open battle, adding to the intensity and the intrigue. At one point, FDU strung together five strikes to keep pace with the Cornhuskers who tallied six strikes in the first nine frames themselves. Once again it would all come down to the tenth. With the door left open after a Nebraska missed strike in the top of the tenth frame, the Knights would once again turn to McEwan with no margin for error. The Knights junior preceded to, on cue, deliver three straight strikes to force a game seven by a single pin, 213-212.

In the seventh and deciding game, both teams left the first frame open, before striking in the next three. The Cornhuskers threw a strike in the fifth, but the Knights fought back with strikes in the eighth and ninth, to once again set up a situation where everything was riding on the 10^th. For this match, on this day, there was no one else on the planet that FDU would have rather had up in this spot than Danielle McEwan. She would continue her tear in pressure filled situations, throwing a strike on her final ball, completing the comeback and clinching the match for FDU, 213-203. In the post-match NCAA press conference, Knights head coach Mike LoPresti commented, “It took us three games to finally figure out what we needed to do and then it was just about momentum. We played like a unit today with the highest level of intensity…that is the only way you can come back from down 0-3.”

For FDU the drama didn’t end there. They would fall later that day to Vanderbilt, only to have to come back the next day to meet Vandy again. This time with a spot in the NCAA Championship Match on the line, Fairleigh Dickinson would turn the tables in the rematch. FDU would oust their opponents in yet another decisive seventh game. The amazing FDU run would eventually come to an end against Maryland-Eastern Shore in the NCAA Championship Match, as the Knights fell just short of adding another national championship to their trophy case.

*photo from ncaaphotos.com

NEC Game Recap

NCAA Press-Conference

FDU NCAA Tournament Central

FDU NCAA Photo Gallery

Nebraska Game Recap

Previous Top 12 NEC Games of 2012:

#5 – FH: Monmouth vs. Rider, NEC Field Hockey Championship (RID 3-2) – 11/3/12

#6 – FB: Central Connecticut State at Robert Morris (RMU 37-31) – 10/20/12

#7 – MLAX: Mount St. Mary’s vs. Robert Morris (MSM 16-15, OT) – 5/4/12

#8 – SWIM: Day Four of the NEC Swimming Championships (SFU 748-747) – 2/25/12

#9 – BASE: Wagner at Fairleigh Dickinson (FDU 4-3, 12 innings) – 4/7/12