PITTSBURGH - Competing in their first USBC Collegiate tournament (a mixture of NCAA, NAIA and Club teams) of the season, Duquesne turned in its best performance placing fourth out of 23 teams at the Roto Grip Raider Classic in Dayton, Ohio. Cassidy Powers led the way during the first day of competition, finishing seventh overall with a 196 average for five games. Kelsey Hackbart and Lauren Mayberry also placed in the top 30 finishing 27th and 28th with 179.4 and 178.4 five-game averages. Janae Haller provided a spark as she had her best performance of the season with a 170.6 average, good for 42nd place out of 142 bowlers.

DU entered the second day of competition in fourth place and was able to hold on to that spot to advance to the Eliminator finals. In the finals, the Dukes took on the No. 1-ranked USBC team, tournament host Wright State University, No. 3 Pikeville and No. 46 Urbana. The teams bowled four baker games across four lanes with the top two scores moving onto the finals. Duquesne kept it close heading into the final game, but ran into some trouble as they left three splits to finish the game.

"This young team continues to impress me with their improvement tournament to tournament," said head coach Jody Fetterhoff. "Last weekend we didn't get it done and that really resonated with all of us. We knew we could do better and they bowled great to get us back in that same position this past weekend. To see the team come through and hold off some very good competition will give us some confidence heading into our first NEC Conference event on Dec 3-4."