Feb. 7, 2010
ST LOUIS – Vanderbilt crushed the field at the McKendree Baker Challenge with a dominating performance Sunday to win its third team championship of the season.
The Commodores averaged a torrid 232 in breezing through the three match play rounds without so much as losing a single game or even being threatened in the best two-of-three Baker format.
Vanderbilt used a rotation of Jessica Earnest, Kayla Rhoades, Brittany Garcia, Brittni Hamilton and Josie Earnest exclusively in the match games.
“Kayla, Brittany Garcia…well, when you shoot those kind of scores pretty much everyone had to be doing something right,” summed up winning Coach John Williamson, who had just watched his No. 1 rated NCAA team earn the trophy by tossing a 275 at top-seeded Weber International’s otherwise excellent 256.
“We started that last game with an open frame, then peeled off ten straight strikes and threw – I think – a seven ball on the last roll,” Williamson remembered. “Their 256 was somewhat after the fact because by the time we had 10 in a row they were a few frames behind us and didn’t have any pressure at their finish.”
The Commodores had opened the day with strong 885 and 838 efforts, then stumbled slightly with 735 and 790 totals which cost them the top match seed to the Weber team, an NAIA squad that attracts good international players by its proximity to the famous Kegel Training Center.
As the field of 20 was cut to the top eight, Vandy opened by beating host McKendree, then got a head of steam going against Robert Morris-Chicago before throwing 268-275 at what must have been a bewildered Weber quintet, whose 234.5 average would normally be sufficient to win a lot of tournaments.
“Weber International is a very good team,” Williamson noted, “and so were some others here. It wouldn’t surprise me if three or four of these teams would make the NAIA national finals. This wasn’t as deep of a field as we’ll see in two weeks at the Hoosier Classic but it was still talented.”
Williamson attributed his team’s minor flutter in the third and fourth games of the day leading up to the match round to its slow transition to changing conditions.
“It took us awhile to realize that what had worked so well yesterday wasn’t still working, the lanes were changing.”
The Commodores travel to Indianapolis in two weeks for the Hoosier Classic, another non-NCAA event that with its huge men’s and women’s fields is billed as the biggest college bowling tournament in the nation. Won-loss records are not counted in these non-NCAA events.
Vanderbilt’s Sunday Results
4-Game Baker Sets
885-838-735-790
Quarterfinals Match Play (Best two of three)
VU def McKendree, 2-0
VU 230-160
VU 160-147
Semifinals
VU def Robert Morris, 2-0
VU 258-168
VU 202-172
Finals
VU def Weber International, 2-0
VU 268-213
VU 275-256
