MUKWONAGO, Wis. – Staving off elimination twice before competing in a final tiebreaking Baker best-of-7 series, top-seeded Marian answered the call at every turn Sunday to claim the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Women’s Bowling Tournament title over Aurora at Jay’s Lanes in Mukwonago, Wis.
 
The CCIW Tournament title is Marian’s third after previous wins in 2021 and 2022. The Sabres, who earlier this month became the first team in league history to win the regular season outright, remain the only team in conference history to sweep both the regular-season and tournament championships after a prior sweep in 2022.
 
The Sabres ousted Carthage early Sunday in an elimination match, prevailing in the traditional game by a score of 1,016-921, then winning the Baker game, 1,007-935.
 
The victory over Carthage vaulted Marian into the final round against Aurora less than 24 hours after the Spartans rallied to overcome the Sabres on Saturday. In Sunday’s traditional series, MU was a 1,002-799 winner. A 970-875 MU triumph in the Baker games forced a seventh and final winner-take-all match for the tournament crown.
 
Match seven, which utilized a Baker best-of-7 scoring model, saw Marian race to a 3-0 lead. Aurora, which was playing in the CCIW final for the first time, extended the tournament twice before the Sabres ultimately claimed a 4-2 win in the tiebreaker and the tournament championship.
 
Annemarie Ruzevich of Aurora and Jocelynn Eggert of Marian were the co-recipients of the Elite 26 award on Sunday, given to the sophomore, junior, or senior and in at least their second season of competition with the highest GPA from the first or second place team in the conference tournament.

Sunday’s result marked the third consecutive year the seventh “if necessary” match was utilized at the CCIW Tournament, as well as the second consecutive year a team won the Sunday morning elimination match before ultimately winning the tournament.