Staff writer
Almost two weeks after the disappointment of losing the first two games to be eliminated from the NCAA Championships, Louisiana Tech’s bowling team made the most of its second postseason opportunity.
The Lady Techsters participated in their first ever Intercollegiate Team Sectionals this weekend with the chance to qualify for the Intercollegiate Team Championships. And that they did.
“We accomplished our goal of qualifying for the USBC team championships,” said head coach Matt Nantais. I am very excited to have another chance to win a championship with this team.”
The team qualifiers of the Dallas Sectional took place with teams competing in 20 Baker games on each day for 40 games. The total pinfall determined which teams advanced to the ITC.
LA Tech finished the sectionals third with 7,482 total pins to earn its first ITC appearance in program history.
TENNIS: Louisiana Tech was clicking on all cylinders in its regular season finale, dismantling of McNeese by a final score of 7-0 in Lake Charles at the Nancy Hank Tennis Center on Sunday afternoon.
LA Tech (9-10) picked up its second straight win over an in-state foe – after defeating Northwestern State last Tuesday – as the Lady Techsters seem to be peaking at the right time with the Conference USA Tournament on the horizon.
The team first captured the doubles point from McNeese (1-17), then got straight-set singles wins from Leonie Schuknecht, Ilana Tetruashvili, Madalina Amil and Claudia Oravcova. LA Tech prevailed in the two courts that went into a third set as well, claiming its first road shutout since 2019.
TRACK & FIELD: Personal bests were abundant for Louisiana Tech on Saturday at LSU’s Boots Garland Invitational in Baton Rouge.
The running highlight came in the men’s 1,500-meter event where four Bulldogs finished in the top 10, led by Conner Killian who placed second with a new PR of 3:55.89.
In the field, Henry Terral shined, winning the javelin with a heave of 211-0.
On the women’s side, Annamari Farrar paced the Lady Techsters with a second-place 124-8 mark in the javelin.
SOFTBALL: Louisiana Tech was only able to take one of four games from UAB in Birmingham at Mary Bowers Field this weekend, a 6-2 victory in the second game of the Saturday doubleheader with Cedar Creek product Lauren Menzina standing out in the circle.
It was the big inning that did in LA Tech (14-22, 4-4 C-USA) multiple times, including on Sunday when UAB (21-17, 8-4 C-USA) scored five runs in the bottom of the fifth to nab a 5-1 win.
The Blazers notched a five-run inning in the first game of the series to take a 10-6 victory. They also posted a 3-1 win on Saturday before Menzina, a freshman, pitched a complete game and Brooke Diaz and Tanjala Smith each recorded timely hits to help the Lady Techsters take game three of the series.