April 14, 2016
NEW BRUNSWICK—Vanderbilt’s goal heading into the first afternoon of qualifying games at the NCAA Championship was to get settled in and stay cool and after winning three of five games, the Commodores felt they accomplished their mission.
There are two more games Friday morning before the double-elimination bracket begins in the afternoon and with a strong and balanced field, it is fruitless to fret over early qualifying outcomes. The 3-2 mark puts the ‘Dores one game behind Sam Houston’s pace-setting 4-1 record but that was no worry to anyone in Black and Gold.
Vanderbilt began its day by storming past McKendree, 1,129-995, and while its scores tailed off as the day wore on, it was not a worry.
“From our standpoint, the start was important and out of the gate we had the highest pin fall of any team that round,” said Coach John Williamson, guiding a team in this event for the 11th consecutive year. “We won’t see the lanes broken down like this again (later parts of the afternoon). It was a challenge at the end because the lanes were burnt up and we didn’t have the equipment needed to do anything more than grind it out.
“We never put a big priority on this qualifying day, too much can happen,” Williamson continued. “Robyn being hot from the start is what is most impressive to me. That’s what she’ll see the rest of the tournament and if you can have your anchor zoned in like that you like your chances in Baker format.”
Renslow, who last night was named first-team All-America for the second time, was satisfied with her day.
“If you would have asked me how I’d do starting out I wouldn’t have said 250-260,” she admitted, “but as the lanes broke down we got into a mess with where we were playing and where other people were playing. We had to figure out right ball, right speed, how much rotation but really the last two games didn’t really matter.”
The Commodores have made it a point to keep an even keel and Renslow, in her fourth nationals, thought that goal also was achieved.
“This didn’t feel as though it’s nationals,” she said, “because we didn’t make this any different than any other tournament. We thought about what was important and that’s our energy and making sure our routine stayed the same on every shot. We did a good job tuning out its nationals.”
Even freshman Kristin Quah, the newly named Rookie of the Year, had her feet on the ground.
“There was obviously a certain amount of nerves at the beginning,” Kristin said, “You could sense from the number of people here that there was a different scale to the event but after I finished practiced and had one or two shots it was back to business. The whole idea was to show we would be good on fresh (oil) and we showed that after the first game. We came out of the gate swinging. We weren’t even prepared equipment-wise for those last games, that was not our focus. It was like trying to run the 100 yard dash in flip-flops.”
Vanderbilt bowled all 10 of its bowlers, the maximum number allowed to suit up by the NCAA. Renslow, Quah and Giselle Poss were in the lineup all five games while Amanda Fry, Tori Ferris, Nicole Powell, Katie Stark and Jordan Newham all had starting roles at one time or another.
Among the many Vanderbilt faithful in attendance were Commodore head football coach Derek Mason and Athletic Development Executive Director Mark Carter.
Friday’s final two qualifying games to complete the round-robin are against North Carolina A&T and Sam Houston. The first game begins at 9:50 Central time. After completion of those games, the championship bracket will be set and double-elimination play begins at 2:30 pm Central.
In the likely event of ties in the qualifying from won-loss marks, the first tie-breaker is head-to-head play in the qualifying rounds. At this point Vandy would hold the edge on McKendree, Stephen F. Austin and Central Missouri while Arkansas State and Nebraska would have the nod over VU in a tie. Pin fall enters into play only if head-to-head is inconclusive in a three-way deadlock.
All Friday games are streamed on www.NCAA.com and found on ESPN3. The main tournament web page is northeastconference.org/ncaabowl,which carries a wealth of information throughout the day. Vanderbilt bowling’s Twitter page will post quick score results of Commodore games.
