NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt will appear in the NCAA Bowling Championship field for the 15th consecutive year and will face Mount St. Mary’s in next week’s first round of regional competition in North Kansas City, Missouri.
The Commodores (40-26) earned their berth in the 16-team field by winning the Southland Bowling League Championship. On the other side of Vandy’s four-team regional is Nebraska, the tournament’s overall No. 2 seed, and Medaille.
The four regions will compete in a double-elimination, mega-match format that includes traditional team games, a 5-game Baker set and – if the two teams split those games – a best of seven Baker match.
“There were not too many surprises in the brackets in my opinion,” Vanderbilt Coach John Williamson said. “Mount St. Mary’s is a newer program and it made some waves in the NEC. We haven’t played them too much but from what I’ve seen they have the ability to score. We’ll have our work cut out for us.”
Mount St. Mary’s is making its first appearance in the NCAA Championship field and is in just its third year of existence. A member of the Northeast Conference, it posted a 37-18 record this season.
Nebraska and Vanderbilt have competed multiple times a year since the 2004-05 season. The Cornhuskers were ranked sixth in the March poll of the National Ten Pin Coaches Association and finished second in Vanderbilt’s Columbia 300 Music City Classic tournament in early March.
Medaille, from Buffalo, New York, won the Allegheny Mountain Conference championship and is making its debut in the NCAA field.
McKendree was the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed with other regional top seeds going to North Carolina A&T (3) and Louisiana Tech (4). The Southland Bowling League put five teams into the field including Arkansas State and Sam Houston. Six of the 16 teams were automatic qualifiers based on winning their conference championships while 10 teams were at-large selections.
The tournament will be conducted at the AMF Pro Bowl in North Kansas City. The first round matches will be played at 9 a.m. April 7 and livestreamed by ncaa.com.
More information can be found on NCAA.com.
