ALTOONA, Pa. (Dec. 4, 2011) – Similar to the results of last year's Red Flash Invitational, the Saint Francis University bowling team earned a second place finish in the seven-team field for the second consecutive year.

"I am so proud of all of our ladies. We have put ourselves right in the mix coming into the next coaches vote, and our ladies once again had a strong weekend," head coach Tom Falbo said. "I'm very happy with our ladies performance all weekend. Their fight is unrelenting and this team is getting stronger. I also want to thank our university and Holiday Bowl for the tremendous display of support for this event."

In the first best-of-seven quad-baker match of Sunday's championship bracket round, the Red Flash (33-14) defeated Northeast Conference foe and 16^th-ranked St. Francis (N.Y.) in five games. Rallying from a sluggish few frames to open the match, SFU struck four times in a row in frames six through nine to propel them to the 192-151 victory in game one. Saint Francis captured game two as well before the Terriers snagged a win in the third set to cut the Flash lead in half. Behind consistent play, SFU took the next two games, including a 225 performance to close out the match.

Striking six times to start its second match against Ursuline, the Red Flash took down the Arrows 4-1. Similar to its previous match with the Terriers, SFU was victorious in games one and two but allowed UC to pull out a win in the third stanza. Saint Francis pulled out a narrow 172-170 win in game four thanks to a last effort strike thrown by sophomore Heidi Baumert (Lincoln, Neb./Pius X). The Flash cleaned up game five as well, leading them to the win and a championship showdown with 10^th-ranked New Jersey City.

SFU looked poised to capture its first ever tournament title, taking the first two games from the Gothic Knights and having all of the momentum and energy on its side. NJCU though mounted a charge and pulled out wins in the next four games to give them the championship trophy. New Jersey City rolled games of over 200 in two of its final four sets and came up big when they needed to, throwing crucial strikes.

"We had beaten New Jersey City yesterday in the traditional game format and we were a frame away from going up 3-1 against them today," Falbo said. "Things didn't fall our way, and that one shot changed the momentum in the match. Congratulations to New Jersey City for a great win today."

Freshman Christina Leid (Ephrata, Pa./Ephrata) was selected to the all-tournament team, which consists of the five highest scoring players of the tournament. Leid racked up the highest pinfall (1,042) in Saturday's traditional matches, the only individual to attain over 1,000 total pins, which earned her Most Valuable Player honors.

"Christina is a player with such a solid foundation," Falbo said. "She has added versatility to keep her in a great zone all day. There are many strong days ahead for her, and I know she will continue to make great contributions and sacrifices to our team on and off the lanes."

Baumert tallied the highest baker frame average for the Flash on the final day of competition at a 19.312 mark. Freshman Briana Ord (Lititz, Pa./Warwick) was close behind her teammate at 19.032.

Saint Francis will take some time off from tournament play and get back in action Jan. 21-22 at the New Year Knockdown hosted by St. Francis (N.Y.).