The defending national champion Pikeville College women's bowling team opened its title-defense season by placing two teams in the top five and capturing first place while hosting the Orange & Black Classic at Beaver-Vu Bowl in Beavercreek, Ohio, Oct. 18-19.

"Our girls had a tremendous effort. In fact, this might have been the best effort we've had in years from every player," Pikeville coach Ron Damron said. "There were some points where we didn't execute like we wanted to, but we did well enough to win, and that's what you're shooting for. I'm well pleased."

Kim Yioulos, who captured the women's individual title with a six-game total of 1,204, led the victorious Pikeville-Orange team, which also featured Jennifer McDaniel (1,117), Becky Sulligan (1,116), Sarah Germano (1,104) and Ashley Stahurski (1,041).

Jenny Petzoldt (1,184) finished second in singles and led Lindenwood University-Black to a second-place finish. Ashley Bollenbacher's 1,167 was good enough for third place in singles and was tops for third place Ball State University. Heidi Sanders (1,086) led fourth-place Wright State University-Gold while Chelsea Gilliam (1,100) paced fifth-place Pikeville-White.

In men's competition, Purdue University-Black rallied from a 1-0 deficit to defeat top-seeded Lindenwood University-Gold 3-1 in the best-of-five title match, giving Purdue the team title.

"We have a relatively young team, so we started the season not really knowing how well we would compete," Purdue coach Scott Savage said. "But the veterans really stepped up, and the new guys bowled well, too. Being able to beat these quality teams should give our team a lot of confidence going forward."

Purdue-Black was led by Luke Matthys, whose 1,242 was good enough for an 11th-place individual finish. Devin Muzzillo (1,209), Ryan Slosser (1,168), Chris Seyffarth (1,162) and T.J. Schmidt (1,142) rounded out the first-place effort.

Lindenwood-Gold's second-place finish was led by Dean Richards, who fired a 1,304 to win the singles crown. Tony Sambueno (1,296) finished second in singles while directing Saginaw Valley State University-A to a third-place finish. Matt Dammann (1,208) led fourth-place Vincennes University-Gold while Patrick Columbe (1,267) was tops for Wright State University-Red Rock, which finished fifth.