The 2026 Intercollegiate Team Championships began Thursday at The Ashwaubenon Bowling Alley in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with the top 16 men’s and top 16 women’s college teams in the country battling for national titles.
The opening day started with 24 Baker games of qualifying to set the bracket. After that, teams moved into double-elimination match play, where every contest was a best-of-seven Baker match.
By the end of the day, four unbeaten teams remained in each division.
The biggest story on the men’s side came from Southern Nazarene. The program is competing at the national finals for the first time and entered match play as the No. 16 seed after qualifying with 4,195.
Despite that, Southern Nazarene stayed perfect through two rounds and moved into the Winners Bracket semifinals.
Southern Nazarene opened match play by defeating top-seeded Webber International 4-3. Webber had led men’s qualifying with 4,809, averaging 200.4 over 24 Baker games.
Southern Nazarene followed the upset by beating No. 9 McKendree 4-1 in the second round. That win placed the team among the final four unbeaten teams in the men’s bracket.
The other three unbeaten men’s teams were St. Ambrose, Lawrence Tech, and Mount Mercy.
St. Ambrose qualified fifth with 4,647 and then defeated No. 12 Marian-Wisconsin 4-1 in Round 1. In the second round, St. Ambrose edged No. 4 Wichita State 4-3. Wichita State had qualified fourth with 4,673 and entered the event as the 2025 runner-up, but the Shockers dropped into the Elimination Bracket after that loss.
Lawrence Tech also stayed unbeaten with two 4-1 wins. The team defeated No. 10 St. Francis-Illinois in the opening round and then beat No. 15 Trine by the same score in Round 2.
Mount Mercy advanced in similar fashion. After qualifying sixth with 4,624, Mount Mercy beat No. 11 Belmont Abbey 4-1 and then defeated No. 3 Milligan 4-1 to remain in the Winners Bracket.
In Friday’s Winners Bracket, Southern Nazarene will face St. Ambrose, while Lawrence Tech will meet Mount Mercy.
On the women’s side, defending national champion Jacksonville State led qualifying with 4,799 and also finished Thursday unbeaten. The Gamecocks controlled both of their matches, first defeating No. 16 Maryville 4-1 and then sweeping No. 9 Central Missouri 4-0.
Jacksonville State was one of four women’s teams to finish 2-0 on Thursday. The others were North Carolina A&T, Newman, and McKendree.
North Carolina A&T qualified fourth with 4,521 and opened match play with a 4-3 win over No. 13 Savannah College of Art and Design - Savannah. In the second round, the team beat No. 5 Sacred Heart 4.5-1.5 to stay in the Winners Bracket.
Newman entered match play as the No. 10 seed after qualifying with 4,326. The team then won two seven-game matches. First came a 4-3 win over No. 7 Cumberland, followed by another 4-3 victory over No. 2 Louisiana Tech. Newman trailed 3-1 in that second-round match before coming back to win.
McKendree also made a strong move through the bracket. After qualifying 14th with 4,255, the team upset No. 3 Mount Mercy 4-3 in Round 1 and then defeated No. 11 Tulane 4-1 in Round 2.
Friday’s schedule starts with Elimination Bracket play, followed by Winners Bracket matches in the afternoon, where Jacksonville State will face North Carolina A&T, while Newman meets McKendree.
The finalists for Saturday’s championship matches will be decided by the end of Friday.
Those finals will later air on CBS Sports Network in May, with the women’s show scheduled for May 5 and the men’s final set for May 13.
