The #15 Valparaiso University bowling team continued its season-opening weekend of action Saturday at the FDU NJ Jamboree in North Brunswick, N.J.

Valpo ended the day in 14^th place in the team standings out of the 26 competing teams, totaling 9,352 pins through two days of competition, just 59 pins out of 12^th position. Arkansas State leads the team standings at 10,480 pins.

“I thought the girls fought hard today,” said Crusader assistant coach Gabby Mayfield. “With this being the first tournament of the year, we have to figure out a way for our bowlers to keep their stamina throughout the longer days of competition. Carry was not on our side today, and each pair of lanes had been broken down differently. Today, more teams played where the house’s characteristics were rather than playing different parts of the lanes, so keeping up with moves and transitions were a little quicker than we expected.”

The Crusaders opened Saturday’s action with back-to-back victories. Valpo began the day with a 1016-942 win over #22 Adelphi, and followed with a 952-858 victory over Howard.

But the Crusaders were unable to extend their winning streak any further, as #7 UW-Whitewater earned a narrow 964-948 win over Valpo in the third match of the day. The Crusaders ended the day falling to Caldwell, 965-887, and #18 Kutztown, 978-886.

“We need to work on repeating quality shots, so when matches start getting tough down the stretch, we can still come out on top,” said Mayfield. “It was overall a decent day – I know the girls have more in them, but these first two days have been a good learning experience which we can apply as we carry on throughout the season.”

Valparaiso (4-6) closes out the FDU NJ Jamboree on Sunday.