Women's bowling earned the No. 7 seed for match play out of 65 teams while the men's team struggled to a 39^th place finish out of 78 teams at the 56^th Annual Hoosier Classic February 15-16 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

In a tournament that featured a different oil pattern each day, the Lady Lions started with a bang on Saturday, firing 1106 in game one, including a 276 game with the front nine from sophomore Julia Smith. That put Lindenwood in the top 10 out of the gate, a position in the standings that would be familiar the rest of the way. The Lady Lions followed with 1016, 952, and 934 to maintain seventh place and then finished the day with 984. With a grand total of 4992 (199.68 average), Lindenwood sat in sixth place, less than 100 pins behind Oklahoma Christian in third, but only 91 pins ahead of the top eight cut line for match play.

Sunday brought a new and relatively high-scoring oil pattern. The Lady Lions bowled well in the first set of five baker games, posting a total of 976, but it was not enough to keep up with the pace and they dropped to ninth and below the cut line. They followed with seven of the next 10 games over 200, maxing at 231, and finished with sets of 1046 and 1047 for a baker total of 3069 (204.6 average). With a grand total of 8061 (201.53  average), Lindenwood had climbed back to seventh, finishing qualifying just 21 pins behind Pikeville in fifth and only 14 behind Judson University in sixth.

Best-of-three baker match play and yet another new oil pattern awaited the top eight teams. As the No. 7 seed, the Lady Lions faced No. 2 seed Calumet College of St. Joseph and jumped out to a comfortable lead in the first six frames of game one, but very tricky and rapidly changing lane conditions came to bear with a split in two of the next three frames. Lindenwood still had a chance to claim a victory, but another split gave the Crimson Wave an opening and they took it for a 186-180 win. After switching lanes on the pair, the Lady Lions never seemed to get comfortable while Calumet filled frames. A late rally came up short and the tournament run for Lindenwood came to an end with a 205-176 loss.

In men's competition, the Lions began Saturday with a respectable 967, but how they achieved that total was a sign of things to come as three players bowled well and two really struggled. The first game put Lindenwood in the upper half of the standings, but the next game of 969 put the team in 32^nd place with an increasing distance to the top eight cut line for match play. Game three proved to be the high of the day at 1050 and moved the Lions up to 21^st with positive signs for a strong finish. Game four was another 967 and Lindenwood finished the day with 1013 in game five. While it wasn't the big finish that was hoped, the Lions totaled 4966 (198.64 average) and completed Saturday in 24^th place, 215 pins away from a match play spot. While it was a large margin, with a new oil pattern waiting on Sunday, anything was possible.

While there were only 15 games on Sunday, baker competition proved to be a frustrating experience for Lindenwood as the team only managed to break the 200 mark once, and it was just a 201. Multiple splits, missed makeable spares, and general inconsistency plagued the Lions all day. When the dust settled, Lindenwood totaled 7597 (189.93 average) for the weekend and finished 39^th.

Individually, Hailey Bozych led the Lady Lions with a five-game total of 1055 (211 average) to finish 15^th in the field of 408 bowlers. Liz Rittenour posted 1002 (200.4 average) for 44^th place,  Samantha Smith took 51^st with 990 (198 average), Haylie Frick finished 85^th with 957 (191.4 average). Julia Smith averaged 203.75 for four games to help the Lindenwood cause.

In the men's field of 530, Juan Pablo Aguirre led the Lions with 1049 (209.8 average) to finish 48^th. Christian Petersen took 62^nd with 1036 (207.2 average), and Luke Batchelor totaled 994 (198.8 average) for 111^th place. Emmanual McPherson averaged 207.5 for four games to give Lindenwood a boost.

The Hoosier Classic was the final regular season tournament for the bowling teams. They now wait to see where they will be sent for Sectional competition March 7-8. The four possibilities are Addison, Illinois; Allen Park, Michigan; Smyrna, Tennessee; or Fort Worth, Texas.