Arlington, Texas — Youngstown State's bowling team moved up three positions from ninth to sixth place on Sunday on the final day of the Prairie View A&M Invitational.

With one match of qualifying left to complete the Round Robin ??on Sunday morning, the Penguins shot 1,010 in a 32-pin loss to Jacksonville State. YSU's total, however, was high enough for it to jump ahead of Louisiana Tech into eighth place. In the PVAMU Invitational format, that one-spot difference in qualifying allowed YSU's ceiling to be fifth instead of ninth.

As the eighth seed in the bracket, Youngstown State took advantage of the opportunity and swept fifth-seeded Arkansas State in the opening round. The Penguins won the opening game 237-235, and they went on to average 225.8 in their four games against the Red Wolves.

Youngstown State then beat Nebraska 232-213 in the opening game of the match to decide fifth place, but the Huskers rallied to win the next four games and win 4-1. The third game went in Nebraska's favor by 11 pins, and the Huskers won a high-scoring game five 249-245.

"Bowling is a large sample-size sport, and sometimes the short-term randomness and fluctuations can be challenging to navigate," said Youngstown State head coach Doug Kuberski. "But, I'm proud of how we handled the entire event. Today was one of our best all-around days of the season. We showed a lot of fight, maintained solid focus on our process, and executed at a high level.

"I can't wait to get back after it this week and begin our preparations for Illinois."

Sunday's traditional match also concluded the individual standings at the tournament. Kirsten Moore shot 1,310 over six matches to average 218.3 and finish 17th, and Jade Cote finished 24th with a 1,269 set.

Youngstown State will be idle next weekend, and it will be back in competition on Feb. 7-9 at Lewis University's Flyer Classic.