Oct. 18, 2015
KENNER, LA–Vanderbilt finished fourth Sunday at Tulane’s All-State Sugar Bowl Classic after winning one of three of its matches in bracket play.
Playing best-of-seven Baker games, the Commodores swept Stephen F. Austin, 4-0, to begin the day. They then dropped a 4-1 match to eventual tournament champion Sam Houston State to fall into the consolation game where they bowed to Nebraska by a similar 4-1 margin.
Junior Giselle Poss was named to the all-tournament tournament based primarily on her performance in Saturday’s team games. Poss averaged 207 over six games to finish fifth individually, a pin and a half average better than freshman Kristin Quah, who was sixth in her collegiate debut.
“Last night we talked about finding something to compete for today,” said Coach John Williamson. “I liked how we came out strong and we played with a sense of purpose. Then, as happens sometimes in bowling tournaments, we had a long break between our game and the next one and we seemed to lose our focus. We’ll have to take inventory so that doesn’t happen again.
“It was in many ways a typical first tournament of the year,” Williamson continued. “Mistakes are made even by the most experienced people. We played a number of quality teams and that helps us. We’ll have two weeks of good practice before the New Jersey tournament.”
The Commodores used a rotation of Katie Stark, Tori Ferris, Kristin Quah, Poss and Robyn Renslow the first two games before changing to Jordan Newham, Poss, Ferris, Quah and Renslow for the finale.
Vanderbilt closed the three-day event with an 8-win, 6-loss ledger. Sam Houston defeated Arkansas State to win the title.
All Tournament Team
Giselle Poss (Vanderbilt)
Destiny Velez (Prairie View A&M)
Jordan Richard (Arkansas State)
Janine Kuwahara (Sam Houston State)
Heather Penatzer – MVP (Sam Houston State)
