LINCOLN, Neb. – No. 25-ranked Central Missouri Jennies bowling went 6-6 to finish in fifth place at the Nebraska Big Red Invitational Feb. 25-27, at Hollywood Bowl.  Six teams of the 8-team field are ranked in the latest NTCA's top-25 Coaches Poll and eight of UCM's matches were played against top-10 teams.

Central Missouri tallied a 13,144 total pins in 64 games for an average pinfall of 205.4 for its top-five performance in the eight-team field.  No. 3-ranked and host Nebraska won the tournament, averaging ahead of No. 1 McKendree by almost two pins over the more than 60 games played.

Day one saw Central Missouri go 2-3 in pool-play Baker Total Pinfall matches.  Wins were against No. 7 Arkansas State and Quincy, with losses against No. 22 Wisconsin-Whitewater, No. 1 McKendree and No. 3 Nebraska.  The 1235 match (236-248-246-227-278 = 247.0 average) vs. Arkansas State ranks as one of the all-time highest Baker match performances in UCM women's history.

Day two pool-play matches say the Jennies also finish 2-3 in the 5-Person Team game format.  Wins vs. No. 7 Arkansas State and No. 9 Youngstown were tempered with losses to Valparaiso, No. 3 Nebraska and No. 1 McKendree.  Jacqueline Garcia-Ulloa led the Jennies individually, finishing sixth in All-Events with an average pinfall of 226.40 in five games.  Sydney Miller finished 19th with an average of 214.00.  Cayla Bortz also averaged 191.00 in a key substitution role.  Andrea Carolina Perez Perez (29th at 187.00) and Brooke Law (30th at 185.40) rounded out the top-30 performers for UCM.  The team performance resulted in Central Missouri finishing pool play in sixth place.

Day three bracket rounds saw sixth-seeded UCM go 2-0 within the Baker Match Play (best 4 of 7) format.  Match 1 vs #22 Wisconsin-Whitewater saw the Jennies battle back from being down 0-3 and win game seven 220-218 to win the match 4-3.  Match two of the day also resulted in a seven-game match with UCM beating No. 3-seeded Arkansas State 4-3 with a final game score of 246-224.

The Jennies are scheduled to return to competition March 6th, hosting UCM's only home match of the 2021-22 season at 6:00 p.m. during the annual Mid-America Individual Championships. The event will provide the opportunity to honor UCM's lone senior (Jacqueline Garcia-Ulloa) in addition to the program's first chance to recognize former Jenny and UCM Athletics Hall of Famer Bryanna (Caldwell) Cote for her 2021 Professional Women's Bowling Association 2021 Player of the Year award.