ARLINGTON, Texas | Regular season champion, and defending tournament champion, Alabama State finds itself as the fourth seed heading into bracket play at the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) championships Saturday.
Alabama State (68-38) dropped a pair of their matches on Friday during traditional play as the teams were playing for seeding in their five matches. The Lady Hornets dropped their first match of the day to Jackson State (the eventual two seed) 963-925, before falling to third-seeded Prairie View A&M 884-858.
The Lady Hornets came back in their final three matches to claim wins in all three, defeating Alabama A&M 848-738 and Texas Southern 1000-908. They ended the day with a 903-763 victory over Southern.
Although the Lady Hornets won three out of their five matches on the day, seedings were determined by total number of pins by each team. The Lady Hornets ended up with 4.534 total pins on the day to earn the fourth seed, just 40 pins from third place Prairie View A&M. The top two teams – Texas Southern and Jackson State – did not bowl less than 906 at any point during the day to earn a first round bye Saturday.
Jessica Sawmiller led Alabama State with a 206.20 average and 1,031 total pins in her five games, recording a 223 in the fourth game of the day (against Texas Southern) and finished third overall on the day.
Alabama State will open bracket play with against fifth-seeded Southern, with the winner advancing to face Texas Southern in the winner's bracket. The loser will drop into the bottom of the bracket to face either Prairie View A&M or Alabama A&M in the double-elimination bracket.
The championship is set for Sunday afternoon and can be seen on ESPN3, with the winner of the tournament earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
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