March 24, 2017
JONESBORO, AR—Vanderbilt defeated Tulane and Sam Houston State Friday and advanced in the winner’s bracket of the Southland Bowling League Championship. The Commodores, seeded third in this event, play top-seed Arkansas State at 1 p.m. CDT Saturday.
The SBL is using a new format, one that will possibly be mirrored in the 2018 NCAA Championship. Each match consists of a traditional team game followed by 5-game Baker series based on pin-fall. If one team wins both games, the match is over. If they split, a best of seven Baker goes into effect.
Vanderbilt defeated both Tulane and Sam Houston and needed the best of seven each time. It topped the Green Wave, 1,039-838 before dropping the 5-game Baker and and then won the best of seven series, 4-1.
It was also a tough pull against the No. 2 seeded Bearkats. Sam Houston eked out an 892-883 traditional game before Vandy rallied with a 983-929 5-Game Baker. In the tiebreaker, the Dores rolled, 4-1 after winning the first three games.
“We had a chance to win the traditional game against Sam Houston but had two opens in the 10th frame,” said Coach John Williamson.
The Commodores used a variety of lineups in their customary seven bowler mix and Williamson said he though both Katie Stark and Kristin Quah were “really good” though out much of the day. For the second straight week, Quah slid into the anchor spot to help keep Sam Houston State at bay.
This was the first time the Commodores were involved in such a format and Williamson was still assessing how it seemed to him.
“It’s an interesting format,” he said, “a 180 degree difference from those best of seven Bakers that can just fly by. With the elongated set-up teams must deal with lane patterns transitioning and being on top of moves that the transitions dictate. The team that is playing best certainly has the better chance to win. In best of sevens, a team can get hot for a short time and come away the winner.”
Scores were low across the board, despite the powerful national ranks of the top teams. The lane patterns were designed by a top national company after prior input from the league and its head coaches. The goal was a challenging pattern in which a good score would be about 1,000.
“The lanes were a little screwy and often the bowling was not pretty,” Williamson said. “Our 980 Baker was the highest in the building.”
If the Commodores top Arkansas State they automatically gain the title match Sunday at 8:00 a.m. Should they lose, in this double-elimination tournament they’d play again Saturday at 5:00 p.m. with the winner of that match advancing to the championship match Sunday.
