WICHITA, Kan. - Despite stumbling sightly during Saturday's traditional rounds, Ottawa surged to a third-place overall finish with strong performances during Baker play, including the second-highest Baker set of the tournament. During bracket play, the Braves took a pair of games off of eventual tournament champion McKendree University in the semifinals after picking up a 3-1 win over Lindenwood University. Ottawa's junior varsity squad also played solid, earning a second-place finish behind Newman University.

"Overall, I was pleased with the varsity and junior varsity performances," said head coach Geoff Poston. "Varsity did make a lot of unforced errors on Saturday. Sitting 10th and out of the top-8 finals, I was proud of how we came in on Sunday and slowly moved up the standings posting one of the top Baker sets in the tournament. We will work on cleaning some of these things up and I expect both teams to be better next weekend.

On the Varsity side, Ottawa posted a pinfall of 926 in the opening round, tied for second with McKendree behind NCAA Division I power Wichita State University. Game two saw a precipitous drop as the Braves managed a pinfall of just 807, falling to ninth. After solid production in games three through five, Ottawa hit a tough spot in the final game of traditional play to drop to 10th with a total pinfall of 5,259.

The first round of Baker play vaulted the Braves into bracket contention and it took the Braves just six rounds to climb into the top four. Although OU posted the second-best Baker set of the tournament in the 10th round, the 229 pinfall wasn't enough to immediately halt their brief dip to fifth, but they did move back into the top half of the bracket.

Ottawa opened bracket play with a 166-158 win over Lindenwood, before the Lions equalized the match with a 156-145 win in game two. Ottawa then claimed the best-of five match with scores of 206 and 191 over back-to-back 160s from Lindenwood.

The Braves were able to take advantage of momentum in the semifinals against McKendree, claiming wins of 195-143 and 192-177 to take a 2-0 lead, but the Bearcats were able to recover and advance.

Ottawa's junior varsity squad also turned in a solid performance, going wire-to-wire in second place behind Newman University through traditional and Baker play. The Braves pushed the Jets hard through the best-of-five championship, falling 168-160 and 167-159 in the first two games before Newman claimed the title with a 208-164 win.

Individually, Kylee Busch finished second among the JV bowlers with a pinfall of 1,078 and Isabel Wong claimed third with 1,075. With the larger roster on the varsity side, Ottawa had only two players bowl all six lines in individual action, but Haylee Busch made the most of her time earning a 24th-place finish with a total of 1,083.

Next up for the Braves is a short trip to Topeka, Kan., for the Wildcat Invitational on Oct. 24th and 25th.