Commodore Notebook: Southland Stats

Dec. 11, 2017

One of the biggest and most helpful recent advances in the promotion of collegiate bowling has been the standardization of reporting individual and team statistics to a central source. The result over the past year has been monthly updates that can easily be broken down into national and conference categories that are both useful in understanding why teams succeed and fail and simply offer enjoyable browsing for the bowling fans craving to know more than a score after 10 frames.

We thought it might be interesting to highlight some of this data from time to time. Like most sport statistics, one is not always comparing apples to apples. For instance, teams that competed in tournaments with challenging lane patterns might not rank as highly as teams that played in tournament with easier conditions. In another example, a team that played in just two tournaments over a month and had a subpar performance in one of them might artificially rank lower than one might expect. You get the idea; never the less, here are some interesting statistical tidbits and observations as fall season concluded.

Vanderbilt is good at converting makeable spares

The Commodores lead the powerful Southland Bowling League in overall and Baker makeable spares, making 83.63 and 83.91 percent. They also lead the conference in single pin spare conversion at 91.45% while getting 93.26% of their Baker single pins. The ‘Dores dedicate a significant portion of practice time throughout the year working on spare shooting, aided by technology that allows certain spare combinations to be repeated over and over.

Kristin Quah seldom misses a spare

The Vanderbilt junior has not missed a single pin spare attempt in traditional games this fall and she is also tops in single pin spare conversion at 96.2%. She ranks second in makeable spare conversion at 87.9%.

Bulanova shines in the clutch

Sophomore anchor Maria Bulanova‘s statistics confirm what the casual fan knows – she is outstanding in crucial situations. In a league with outstanding anchors, Bulanova ranks No. 1 in anchor 10th frame scoring average (21.54), No. 1 in all-bowler Baker double percentage (60%) and tops in anchor 10th frame double percentage (36%). The Moscow native is second to fellow All-American Jordan Richards of Arkansas State in overall scoring average by a 22.26-21.39 margin although Bulanova has bowled the most frames by a wide margin.

Too many splits

If Vandy fans feel their team is prone to splits in Baker play – leading to momentum-busting opens – they are correct. The Commodores are dead last in the Southland by committing splits 10% of the time in Baker play. The conference leader is suffering splits about half as much.

Nationally sixth in pin production

The Commodores are sixth in total average at 196.1 pins per game (combining Baker and traditional scoring). That’s right behind Nebraska (203.1), McKendree, Sam Houston, Arkansas State and Stephen F. Austin.

Adel tops Baker split conversions

Adel Wahner has converted an impressive 30.8% of her split attempts to lead the conference.

Only Maria knocking down 9+ pins regularly

Of the Southland’s top 15 bowlers in the category of 9+ pins on the first ball, Bulanova is the only Commodore listed. She is currently fourth at 77.7% while the category leader tops 83%.

Gainor, Newham make lists

While Bulanova and Quah are scattered among many categorical leaders, freshman Samantha Gainor and junior Jordan Newham also were included on some lists. Gainor was 13th overall and 10th Baker in strike percentage (47.6%). Newham was 14th in single pin spare conversion at 90.6%.