Jan. 30, 2016
ARLINGTON, TX—Vanderbilt had its 15-game winning streak snapped Saturday as it won four of five games at Prairie View A & M’s Invitational. It stands third heading into the final day of play.
The Commodores, who have won 19 of their last 21 contests, began their five traditional games with wins over North Carolina A & T, the defending USBC national champion, and fourth-ranked Sam Houston State before running into a buzz saw in the form of Arkansas State. While Vandy was notching its third straight game above 1,000, the Red Wolves were racking up 1,133 pins and not to be denied.
The `Dores beat Tulane and ended the day scraping past No. 8 Stephen F. Austin, last year’s NCAA runner-up, 977-939, in a blue-collar affair.
“We scored better than we bowled,” said Commodore Coach John Williamson. “We didn’t execute first shots well the last two games and as a result we left some difficult spares to make. We were within 100 pins of the lead until we faltered late.”
Vanderbilt anchor Robyn Renslow helped make sure her team didn’t start slowly as it did on Friday with a “unique” 270 game – 10 strikes, one spare and a gutter ball on her last attempt in the tenth frame! Renslow finished second by one pin to Arkansas State’s Jordan Richard individually with games of 270-235-214-197-244 (1,160). It was her best team 5-game effort of the season.
Once again the Commodores adjusted their lineup during the long day in the International Training and Research Center. Much of the time the rotation was Nicole Powell, Olivia Wirtz, Giselle Poss, Kristin Quah and Renslow with Amanda Fry and Katie Stark also seeing action.
There is one more match in the round-robin remaining first thing Sunday morning, which will be a bye game for Vandy. The pin count will be significant in the tightly bunched field.
There will then be just two Baker games in the bracket to determine final standings. Play begins at 8:25 Central and is streamed on cube.com.
Stephen F. Austin leads after 10 games, followed by Arkansas State and Vandy with Nebraska and UMES nipping at their heels.
