Oct. 30, 2014
The Event: Fairleigh Dickinson is hosting its annual New Jersey Jamboree Friday through Sunday at the Brunswick Zone Carolier in North Brunswick, NJ.
The Field: Adelphi, Arkansas State, Bethune Cookman, Caldwell, Cheyney, Coppin State, Delaware State, FDU, Felician College, Franklin Pearce, Kutztown, Long Island U., Maryland-Eastern Shore, Monmouth, New Jersey City, North Carolina A&T, Pitt-Bradford, Sam Houston State, Saint Francis (NY), Saint Francis (Pa), Saint Peter’s, Stephen F. Austin, Valparaiso, Vanderbilt, Virginia State, Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Format: Friday’s five team games begin at 11:00 a.m. (ET). Saturday’s five team games start at 9 o’clock and Sunday the championship bracket play, best four of seven Bakers, also starts at 9 a.m.
VU’s Travel Party: The Commodores will take the same nine as opened the season two weeks ago at Tulane: seniors Natalie Goodman, Rebeca Reguero, Nicole Mosesso, juniors Amanda Fry, Tori Ferris and Robyn Renslow, sophomores Olivia Wirtz and Giselle Poss and freshman Katie Stark will make the trip.
Mixing Work, Pleasure and Competition: As is Vanderbilt’s custom, when feasible the coaching staff takes the team on educational sight-seeing tours the day before competition. The Commodores fly to Newark Thursday and see Princeton’s campus before checking into the hotel. After the team’s afternoon practice, they will drive into New York City to visit the 9/11 Memorial for a guided tour, then walk the surrounding plaza before heading to Times Square for dinner and the sights.
Last Time Out: The Commodores had mixed results at the Tulane Invitational. They began the first day unbeaten and in first place, slipped a bit in the team games Saturday with three wins but also sustaining two losses. On Sunday they dropped a competitive match with defending national champion Sam Houston State in the semi-finals and placed third.
History at Jamboree: Vanderbilt has traditionally competed at this tournament with the exception of when Hurricane Sandy forced cancellation. It won the event in 2008 but has not won since despite constantly being in championship contention.
The Coach’s View: “This is a different format than we typically see,” says Coach John Williamson. “We play team games the first two days instead of Bakers one day and team the next. That changes the complexion and pace of the tournament as some teams might be a little stronger in team games than Baker and vice versa. We have spent a bit more time in practice on team games the past two weeks.”
Follow on Twitter: Game by game results can be found on the Vanderbilt bowling Twitter and Facebook pages. If live video streaming becomes possible, it will be announced on these pages. This web site will have Vanderbilt results at the conclusion of each day.
Good Luck to Brittni Hamilton: The ex-Vandy All-American leaves today with the United States team for the QubicaAMF World Cup in Wroclaw, Poland, which runs Nov. 1-9.
