FREMONT, NEB. – As the calendar turns to March and thoughts of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics championships and the United States Bowling Congress collegiate sectionals and nationals come to mind, Morningside University head coach Steve Gonshorowski likes what he sees from his women's team.

A big reason for that is what developed at the NAIA's unaffiliated conference tournament Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 26 and 27. Mside took to Plaza Lanes and rolled a 3868 in Saturday's Baker games section. Sunday, they provided even more magic, battling through bracket play as the four seed and reaching the championship where they gave a strong Kansas Wesleyan University squad all they handle before falling 4-1 in the series.

"The women bowled 26 games and threw 919 shots over the weekend," Gonshorowski noted. "For five athletes, that's a lot of bowling. Sunday's match play run took six matches and 26 games. We just had to dig in and keep going forward. It seemed the entire tournament that if one player faltered, another stepped up. If you at the two-day averages, every player was nearly even – maybe just a pin or so difference."

Morningside's skipper pointed to a match-play rally past an Ottawa University of Kansas program being the key to the eventual finish. "Coming from behind was the way we bowled the rest of the day. We trailed Hastings and College of Saint Mary 2-1 and then swept Ottawa and Midland."

"The entire weekend was special for us because of the way the team stuck together," he added. "I think the biggest highlight was sweeping Midland and Ottawa. They've been tough on us of late. I have to hand it to Kansas Wesleyan. They made some big improvements from earlier in the season, as we beat them in three tournaments."

The Mustangs men's team played the Baker series to 4025 to earn them the fifth seed in match play. Gonshorowski admitted they were not too far off from a potential run of their own.

"Our guys are good," he pointed out. "We just haven't had a chance to play the same seven together from tournament to tournament with injuries, sickness, and so on. Despite this, we had Midland down in match play and missed a spare to beat them. It could have changed a lot."

Individually, two student-athletes were named second-team all-league. Junior Kailin Hoffmeister (South Sioux City, Neb.) was the women's honoree. Sophomore Reece Hartmann (Sioux Falls, S.D.) was the men's selection.