ELMWOOD PARK, N.J. (Nov. 5, 2011) – The Saint Francis University bowling team moved up one spot to 14^th overall, from yesterday's first round on the qualifying leaderboard at the FDU New Jersey Jamboree Saturday afternoon.

"This team has talented and tremendous character, and today they showed it," head coach Tom Falbo said. "We have respect for the teams that we faced, and came away with some very important victories. Tomorrow is another day and we will face each game with the same intensity."

Today's events consisted of five traditional games, whereas yesterday's rounds were all baker matches. The Red Flash (18-5) sported a 4-1 record following today's action and combined with the 3-2 mark they posted Friday, they compiled a 7-3 overall record for the tournament.

Perhaps their biggest win of the season thus far came in today's round of play when the Red Flash took down the first-ranked team in the country, Maryland Eastern Shore 943-915, who are the defending NCAA and ITC national champions. In addition to beating UMES, SFU also overtook Wisconsin Whitewater 866-849, another nationally ranked opponent. That gives the Flash three victories so far this seaon over nationally ranked teams.

In their five traditional games this afternoon, Saint Francis bowled games of 883, 943, 866, 800 and 838 for a total traditional game pinfall of 4,330. Added to that total is yesterday's baker pinfall of 3,291, giving SFU a combined total pinfall of 7,621 for the two days, leaving them in 14^th place in the 18-team field.

Tournament host Fairleigh Dickinson led all schools with a total combined pinfall of 9,016. Vanderbilt, Maryland Eastern Shore, Sam Houston State and Sacred Heart round out the remaining top-five squads.

From an individual standpoint, sophomore Marissa Matassa (Plum, Pa./Plum Senior) led the way for the Flash with a total pinfall in five traditional games of 945. Matassa also had the team-high game of the match when she threw a 258 in her first game. Coming in behind Matassa in total pinfall is freshman Christina Leid (Ephrata, Pa./Ephrata) who was the only other member of SFU to post a total score above 900 by rolling a 914. As a team, the Flash bowled their best game in the second match by throwing a 943.

Maryland Eastern Shore had four of its players bowl over 1,000 on the day but it was Brittni Hamilton of Vanderbilt who earned top individual honors by registering a total traditional pinfall of 1,101.

Saint Francis will start the playoff portion of this weekend's events tomorrow afternoon beginning with St. Francis (N.Y.), and will continue through the playoff bracket until a finishing order of the participating teams can be determined.