HIGHLAND, Ind. (March 26, 2018) – Once again, the Webber International University men's bowling team has been crowned NAIA National Champions. Individually, Caitlyn Johnson was NAIA Player of the Year on the women's side while Evan Baranecky was named First-Team NAIA All-American and Matthew Russo was named MVP of the National Tournament.

The 2018 NAIA Bowlerstore.com Invitational Team Championship was held from Friday, March 23, to Sunday, March 25, at Plaza Lanes in Highland, Indiana.



Through the first 24 Baker games on Friday, the Webber men's bowling team knocked down 5,457 pins to tie for first out of 20 teams with Robert Morris University (Ill.) and qualify first in the winner's bracket.

From there, the top-seeded Warriors earned a bye in the first round of the championship bracket and began Saturday morning with a 3-1 (223-155, 235-197, 212-235, 233-158) win over 17-seeded Marian University, and then Webber came back in the afternoon to record 3-0 sweeps over nine-seeded the University of Saint Francis (212-176, 180-171, 217-191) and five-seeded Saint Ambrose University (215-192, 198-178, 199-184).



On Sunday morning, Webber squared off against Saint Ambrose again and fell behind two games to none, 166-227 and 184-197, before storming back to win each of the final three games by scores of 203-166, 204-165 and 224-165, respectively.

Needing just one more win to claim the national championship, Webber then met up once again with Saint Ambrose, which needed to win twice to upset the Warriors. Webber fell 3-0 (211-178, 233-182, 212-189) in the first meeting before taking the championship with another thrilling comeback for a 3-2 victory (166-227, 184-197, 203-166, 204-165, 222-165) to bring home the ultimate prize.



On the women's side, Webber qualified in 20th after the round of Baker games with 4,306 pins, and then took down 13-seeded St. Xavier University 3-1 (179-126, 189-176, 160-187, 175-165) in the opening round and upset fourth-seeded Calumet College of St. Joseph again 3-1 (192-178, 169-181, 210-144, 234-179) in round two.



The Lady Warriors then suffered a 3-0 (210-156, 193-181, 192-190) loss to fifth-seeded Robert Morris, but rebounded with a big 3-2 (234-222, 193-173, 204-204, 167-212, 211-207) win over second-seeded Hastings College in the consolation bracket.

The Webber women then went up two games to none before being knocked out of the consolation bracket with a 3-2 (173-191, 221-233, 264-155, 198-170, 184-177) defeat to 17-seeded Concordia University, which fell in its next matchup to eventual women's champion and seventh-seeded the University of Pikeville.



Congratulations to the Webber Warriors' men's bowling team and the entire Webber coaching staff on their 2018 Bowlerstore.com NAIA Invitational Men's Team Championship.