ALTOONA, Pa. (Nov. 30, 2012) – On the first day of competition at the third annual Red Flash Invitational, the Saint Francis University bowling team collected four wins and one loss in the seven-team field.

"This was the most important day of accomplishment so far this year. We are on a challenging oil pattern, competing in a format that we were still trying to find our potential," head coach Tom Falbo said. "The first two matches we fought so hard, like we have all year to bowl like we are capable in this format but were coming up short. Because we have such a deep team, in the third match we were able to find the right energy and line-up in what turned out to be a very strong performance for the day. They got only better each game they threw. I'm so proud of this team's patience and confidence today."
 
Friday's first round matches were formatted with four baker games making up a match, highest pinfall wins.
 
Kutztown went 4-0 Friday afternoon but the Red Flash (19-7) recorded the highest total pinfall of the day getting 3,864 pins to fall. SFU started slow in its first match against Salem International, recording a pinfall of 678 but continued the day with steady improvement.
 
After an opening win over Salem International, the Flash suffered its lone loss of the afternoon 764-730 to Ursuline. In its next three matches Saint Francis pretty comfortably took care of the rest of its opponents, downing Penn State Altoona 743-615. In match number four SFU defeated Medaille 818-608 and took down Northeast Conference foe New Jersey City in the final match of the day 895-726.
 
SFU's 895 score versus NJCU was the highest total score of the first round.

"Christina Leid (Ephrata, Pa./Ephrata) threw it well again and gets stronger every time she steps on the lanes," Falbo said. "Lauren Johnson (Lincoln, Neb./Lincoln Southeast) and Heidi Baumert (Lincoln, Neb./Pius X) had tremendous days. Heidi came in during the middle of the first match and her consistency was impressive the remainder of the day. Lauren has been so patient this year and worked so hard to improve her game. Today, she was ready for the start and was comfortable and strong all day."

Baker frame averages for the day finished as follows: Lauren Johnson (Lincoln, Neb./Lincoln Southeast) 21.526, Heidi Baumert (Lincoln, Neb./Pius X) 20.129, Christina Leid (Ephrata, Pa./Ephrata) 19.811, Ashley Howe 18.54 and Marissa Matassa (Plum, Pa./Plum Senior) 17.731.
 
Saint Francis returns to the lanes tomorrow for the second round of the Red Flash Invitational with traditional game play.