JONESBORO, AR—Vanderbilt won its second Southland Bowling League championship in three years, sweeping top-seeded Arkansas State in both traditional and Baker games.
The third-seeded and fifth ranked Commodores had strong performances across the board but got huge boosts from tournament Most Valuable Player Katie Stark and all-tournament member Maria Bulanova.
Sunday’s championship avenged a defeat earlier in the double-elimination tournament to the Red Wolves, who were competing on their home Hijinx Lanes. A strategic decision after yesterday’s loss might have been a difference maker.
“We changed where we played after yesterday’s Arkansas State game,” said Coach John Williamson. “The fresh pattern and heavy oil was evaporating the outside where we were playing so we had to jump inside. We rode those changes to a win against SFA yesterday and stuck with them today. In hindsight we used the outside one game too long, like a baseball coach might leave a pitcher on the mound too long.”
Williamson was pleased and proud of his team’s overall performance.
“The pattern didn’t suit Adel’s (Wahner) game here but we had six people who contributed a lot to this win,” he said. “Kristin’s best look tends to be on the outside so moving in wasn’t in her best interests but Jordan came in and did a good job. It took everyone and nobody cared who was playing and who was not.
“Our team has a contagious sort of personality”, Williamson continued. “They pass confidence from one to another but because we are so dramatically young, we sometimes this season have passed along some bad vibes, too.”
He noted the strong performance of his left-handers, Stark and Emily Rigney.
“It was a matter of executing,” Williamson said. “Emily has bowled as well as anyone the past month – she made the all-tournament team at Monmouth – and Katie has always shown flashes of excellence since she arrived. She never shrinks from competition; she elevates her game in match play. If there’s a competition she wants to win.”
Stark, the junior from Orlando who has made two all-tournament teams in prior years, talked about confidence and teamwork after it was over.
“It felt great to finally feel good about my game again,” she said. “It felt good to be confident again and help my team. There was a point today where I had a string of three strikes and Josie (assistant coach Earnest) pulled me aside and challenged me to throw another good shot – we’ve had a tendency to lose some focus and throw a bad ball on some strings. I didn’t get a strike but I threw a good ball and by then I was really feeling it, one of the first times for me all year. I’m glad it happened here where I could help my team.”
Senior Giselle Poss paused a moment after being asked if winning the tournament for the second time was as good as the first.
“The second one is actually a little better,” she noted, “because the first one came as the conference was being established and now everything is more refined. And to win with such a young team is special.”
Poss noted the team played “with a bit of a chip on our shoulder” and realized quickly that spares and filling frames were the currency of the day. “It was evident that spares were going to win it,” the Illinois product said. “We had an attitude of throwing the best shot we could and then pick up what was left.”
Poss said her key strike in the eighth frame of the last Baker game came when she decided that instead of putting added pressure on herself, she just threw the shot on instinct.
Vanderbilt employed a team-game lineup of Kristin Quah, Giselle Poss, Emily Rigney, Stark and Bulanova and seemed in command from the opening frame. The ‘Dores nursed a 5 pin lead after four frames and quickly stretched it to 33 after 5 frames, then to over 100 pins after the ninth.
The final was 976-856 with Quah at 168, Poss adding 188, Rigney at 201, Stark leading the way at 223 and closing with six straight strikes and Bulanova at 196.
Vandy swapped Jordan Newham for Quah heading into the 5-game Baker series after the Singapore sophomore struggled with three, 4-7-10 splits in the team game. Once again, Vandy grabbed a tiny lead and grew it to as many as 32 pins over the next four games.
Arkansas State, ranked No. 3 nationally, did not go out easily and made a modest run in the fifth Baker game but Vandy hung tough. Poss’ big strike in the eighth snuffed out any ASU hope for a come-from-behind win.
Left-handers were golden for Vanderbilt. Not only was Stark named MVP after her sterling team game and multiple strikes in Baker play, freshman Emily Rigney mirrored hefty numbers while filling frames in the Bakers. ASU didn’t have a southpaw to counter Vanderbilt’s lefty advantage.
The post-game celebration scene saw the Commodores quickly don Southland championship t-shirts and some observers saw two of Coach Williamson’s son – eight-year old Eli and four-year old Gabe – rush onto the floor and into their dad’s embrace.
Next for the Commodores is Wednesday’s NCAA Championship Selection Show, which will occur at 3:00 p.m. (CDT) on a live stream from NCAA.com, where they are considered a lock for their 12th straight NCAA berth. Here is the link: http://www.ncaa.com/live/player?vid=2017/2810&date=2017/03/29.
Be sure to look at the official tournament web page at southland.org for more information and photographs.
