Women's bowling was narrowly edged out of match play in the quarterfinals as the number five seed while the men's team finished ninth, just missing match play, at the 2022 Mid-States Championship October 15-16 in Wichita, Kansas.

In a tougher scoring environment, the Lady Lions remained reasonably steady through six team games on Saturday afternoon, although there were some ups and downs. After sitting in a tie for third at one point, they dropped back as far as seventh before rallying back to third by the end of the day. With a Saturday total of 5,460, Lindenwood was 148 pins from second and just over 200 from first, but also held a 58-pin advantage over fourth.

The Lady Lions remained steady during the majority of baker play on Sunday, but faded a bit down the stretch. While remaining in third place, the high point for the day came after a 796 total in set three which moved them to within 113 pins of second, but the final two sets were much lower and Lindenwood finished preliminary competition in fifth place with a grand total of 8,993, edging Newman by 23 pins.

As the No. 5 seed, the Lady Lions faced No. 4 seed St. Ambrose in the quarterfinals of best-of-five baker match play. The Fighting Bees had surpassed Lindenwood by just 67 pins in the final baker set, but it was the Lady Lions that took control of the match early with two quick victories 203-173 and 174-149. St. Ambrose fought back in the next two games to tie the match at 2-2 as Lindenwood struggled. That set up a winner take all game five, which went to the final frame before being decided. The Lady Lions started to find their way again, but the Fighting Bees maintained a small lead until the 10^th frame when a key double temporarily gave Lindenwood the lead. Needing a double of her own, the St. Ambrose anchor delivered, giving the Bees a 187-180 win and match victory.

Meanwhile, in men's competition, the Lions started very slowly and sat in 17^th place after the first two team games on Saturday, but they posted four straight games above 1,000 including a high of 1,085, to finish the day with a total of 6,045. That was enough to get them to eighth place and the final spot for match play, but it was a slim margin of only 29 pins to ninth.

That proved to be significant as Lindenwood started slowly again in baker play on Sunday. Their low set of the day dropped the Lions into ninth place and back out of the cut. Despite breaking the 200 mark nine times out of the final 16 games, including high sets of 868 and 869, along with a high game of 266, they couldn't make up any ground in the standings. With a grand total of 9,974, Lindenwood remained in ninth to miss the cut by 70 pins behind eighth place Ottawa (Kan.) University.

Individually, Hailey Bozych led the Lady Lions with a six-game total of 1,199 (199.83 ave.) to finish fifth in the field of 204 bowlers, earning a spot on the All-Tournament Team. Haylie Frick took 11^th with a total of 1,130 (188.33 ave.), including a high game of 243. Samantha Smith finished 29^th and Justice Heisler took 38^th.

In the men's field of 283 bowlers, Drew Sacks led the Lions with a total of 1,296 (216 ave.) to finish 19^th. Garrett Jolly took 25^th with a total of 1,263 (210.5 ave.), followed closely by Juan Pablo Aguirre in 28^th with 1,255 (209.17 ave.). Blake Reiger was 36^th with 1,228 (204.67 ave.), and Caleb Horton averaged 209 for five games to help the Lindenwood cause.

In other action, the Lions finished second in the Junior division to earn a spot in the match play finals against Wichita State, but lost 3-0.

The men's and women's bowling teams jump right back into action as they host the 14^th Annual Hammer Lions Classic October 22-23 in St. Charles, Missouri.