Final Southland Bracket
| Vanderbilt’s All-Time Championships
March 22, 2015
A few hours after Vanderbilt had made bowling history by winning the first Southland Bowling League championship, Nicole Mosesso was talking about a key to victory.
“Selflessness,” said the senior honors student who was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. “We have talked all year about the idea of selflessness. In order to achieve something special we have to be selfless. I’m not sure I totally understood that myself until our own Music City tournament when it was a left-handers shot and I saw other teammates making shots and winning.”
Mosesso was one of many Commodores that took the word to heart and Vandy’s late-season surge – winning 30 of the team’s last 36 games – is Exhibit A. Indeed, the sixth-ranked Commodores tore through the Southland event with a perfect 4-0 worksheet, including a 4-2 win over third-ranked Arkansas State in the title game.
In addition to Mosesso’s MVP honor, sophomore Giselle Poss was named to the all-tournament team along with Sarah Lokker of Arkansas State, Torrie Decker and Sadie Jasinski of Valparaiso and Stephanie Schwartz of Stephen F. Austin.
Mosesso was part of a major move by Coach John Williamson after the `Dores had fallen behind, 2-0, in the big match.
“We needed a change of some magnitude,” Williamson said after altering his original lineup in four of the five spots by moving Mosesso into leadoff, inserting Nicole Powell into second, sliding anchor Robyn Renslow to third, leaving Giselle Poss at the four spot and pushing freshman Katie Stark from first to anchor.
“I think it speaks to what we can accomplish as a group that we can make such changes and add energy,” Williamson says. “We needed a spark and I had confidence we would find one.”
Vanderbilt’s bowling program has had a knack for making history over the years and it wasn’t lost on this team that there was another opportunity to make it.
“We talked early in the week about a goal of making history,” Williamson said. “We have a track record of doing that and by winning the first one we felt that was something everyone would always remember. It wasn’t easy, there were eight good teams here and four that I’m pretty certain will be in the field at the NCAA Championship.”
Several of Sunday’s games were nail-biters as the two powerful teams traded runs of strikes with occasional miscues.
“We had to be in position to take advantage of our opponent’s errors,” Williamson noted.
Mosesso sensed momentum turning after Vandy captured the third game – the first one employing the revised order.
“After we won that first game I think we sensed something,” she said, “and when we tied it 2-2 we thought it was going to be our day. The coach was looking to change the energy and I love being able to create a spark.”
Mosesso, who quickly credited Powell as “an extreme force” in the game and noted the steady contributions of Renslow and Stark, said she loves the best-of-seven format and the chance to compete for her school.
“I love this sport,” the Ohioan gushed. “I couldn’t be more proud of my teammates. I kept working when I was coming back from my sore back, practiced some on my own. I told the coach I hadn’t checked out and that there were two things left to accomplish (Southland and NCAA). I told him `I’m ready if you need me’ and when I heard my name called out I was ready.”
Williamson credits the late-season surge, an .833 winning clip, on solid bowling and his team having a lot of confidence.
“We have won in a variety of ways,” he says. “We’ve won coming from behind, we’ve won with big scores, we’ve won close games. When you believe something is going to go your way good things happen. We have talked all year about finding a way.”
Vanderbilt will hear its name called next week for the eight-team NCAA Championship field with the tournament coming April 9-11 in St. Louis.
