OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - Over the course of its first full season of competition, William Woods has seen its share of ups and downs. That trend continued into Saturday's seeding rounds, but the Owls saw nothing but the highest of highs on Sunday, rolling undefeated through bracket play to win the AMC/GPAC/KCAC NAIA Qualifying Tournament and claim one of six coveted automatic bids to the NAIA Women's Bowling National Championship. Woods downed Hastings 4-2 (175-168, 161-142, 140-155, 195-147, 141-147, 151-149) in the best of seven Baker set, becoming the first team to qualify for the national championship in its first year of existence.

"I'm incredibly proud of how our team bowled this weekend," said head coach Bill Holbrook. "We were able to make the right adjustments to the changing lane conditions throughout the day Saturday, and we never lost our momentum in bracket play on Sunday."

Jumping right in to Baker play action on Saturday, Woods got off to a slow start, sitting in 10th after the first two games. After scores of 139 and 145 in the opening pair of lines, the Owls trailed Morningside University by 113 pins and were 20 and 34 off the pace of AMC foes Missouri Baptist and Columbia respectively.

Woods turned the corner in game three, jumping four spots in the overall leaderboard with a 188, then leapfrogged Columbia to round out the first set of four games with a total of 643. The mark put the Owls in fourth place, trailing Missouri Baptist by 10 pins and leader Morningside by 107.

The second set of Baker games proved much better for WWU, as they climbed to second overall with lines of 171, 164, 175 and 161 for an eight-game total of 1,314. After falling to fifth overall at the end of game 16, trailing MoBap by just four pins, the Owls closed out the seeding rounds with a steady 693 set to retake fourth place.

Woods opened bracket play on Sunday with an all-AMC battle against Missouri Baptist, claiming a 3-1 win and advancing to face top-seeded Morningside, who bested Midland 3-1 in its first round contest.

Coming in as underdogs after finishing 193 pins off the Mustangs' pace during seeding, WWU never faltered, knocking off Morningside 3-2. Riding the momentum of its upset win over MU, Woods blasted past another AMC foe, sweeping Columbia 3-0 and claiming a spot in the championship match.

The Owls then watched to see which of Ottawa, Hastings or Columbia would advance out of the loser's bracket as the championship opponent. Hastings downed Ottawa 3-2 and collected a 3-1 win over Columbia.

WWU took the first two games of the best-of-seven match against no. 2 seed Hastings, but the Broncos were able to answer with a win in game 3. The Owls posted a match-high 195 in game 4 to take a 3-1 lead, but the Broncos staved off elimination with a 147-141 win in game 5.

The sixth game came down the wire, as Woods claimed a two-pin victory, 151-149, earning the grouping championship and an automatic qualifier berth.

William Woods will represent the AMC in the 2024 NAIA Women's Bowling National Championship, March 21-23 in Sterling Heights, Mich.