Women's Bowling | 4/19/2018 7:53:00 PM

LINCOLN, Neb. — A long day at the Intercollegiate Team Championships ended with a tough seed and a tougher first-round matchup for the Newman women's bowling team Thursday, but the Jets are still alive in the loser's bracket with a chance to come back with a strong day.

The Jets qualified 15th in the 24 baker games to kick things off Thursday morning and early afternoon at Sun Valley Lanes in Lincoln, Nebraska. That put them up against second-seeded Lindenwood in a first-round matchup between two of the top three teams in the polls entering the weekend.

Newman won the first two games of the best-of-seven match handily, but the Lions found a rhythm with a 184-158 win in the third, and rang up three straight 200 games over the next three to win in six.

The Jets will face 14 straight hours of bowling Friday if they want to make the televised national final on Saturday. Newman starts at 7:45 a.m. against William Penn — the 10th seed and a 4-2 loser against St. Francis in the first round — and next up would be Sacred Heart. Those are the first two of what would have to be six consecutive wins Friday to make it to Saturday.

The long process of qualifying took a bit out of the Jets early Thursday. They were sixth in the 16-team field through 10 games and eight through 12 games, but slipped to 15th after the second half of the 24 baker games.

Live scoring and selected live video streams will be available throughout the day Friday.