Bowlers drop CUSA opener on Wednesday

HARAHAN, LA – The 2026 Conference USA Bowling Championships opened on Wednesday outside of New Orleans, with No. 10-seeded Wright State falling to No. 3 Arkansas State by a 2-0 score in a mega match.

The Raiders dropped the first, traditional round 956-820, with Jasmine Schulze tallying the highest score of the Wright State group with a 187, followed by Alli Shattuck's 180. In the Baker round, Wright State dropped the opener before bouncing back with a second round win, but Arkansas State continued its momentum to close out action with wins in rounds three through five.

Wright State now moves to the contender's bracket for a Thursday matchup against No. 9 Sacred Heart at 3 p.m. ET in round three as the Raiders look to fight back into the bracket.

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CONFERENCE USA BOWLING CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL

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The Conference USA Championship is determined by the mega-match format. A mega-match encompasses three different rounds or points, and a team must get to two points to win the match.

The first round is the traditional format. Each team in the match has five players bowl a full game, and each individual's total score is added together for the team total. Whichever team has the highest score from all five individual games wins the point and leads the mega-match 1-0.

The second round of the mega-match is the Baker total pinfall portion, which consists of five games. The winner is determined by adding the pinfall of all five games together. In the Baker format, lineups are comprised of five bowlers with each being responsible for two frames in each game. The leadoff player bowls in frames one and six. The second person in the lineup bowls in frames two and seven, etc. If the team that wins the traditional round also wins the Baker pinfall round, they win the match 2-0. If the team that lost the traditional round wins the Baker point, the mega-match is tied 1-1 and goes to a best-of-seven Baker match play format.

In the best-of-seven tiebreaker format, instead of adding five games together to determine a total, all that matters is the score each game. Winning 300-175 of 176-175 has the same weight. The first team to four games wins the point and wins the mega-match 2-1.

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Players Mentioned

Jasmine Schulze

Alli Shattuck

Players Mentioned

Jasmine Schulze

Alli Shattuck

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