HARAHAN, La. — The No. 3 Vanderbilt bowling team earned the top seed after two days of qualifying competition at Tulane’s Colonial Lanes Classic in Harahan, Louisiana.
“It was a really solid day,” head coach John Williamson said. “We had contribution from a lot of people. It was good to see everyone engaged for the entire day.”
The Commodores compiled 10,513 pins for a 210.3 game average. Nebraska, ranked second nationally, earned the No. 2 seed with a 10,272-pin total. No. 6 Arkansas State and No. 5 Wichita State round out the championship bracket as the three and four seeds.
The Dores started their day defeating No. 12 Duquesne by a score of 1,085-984. All five of Vandy’s players posted scores over 200, led by 222s from Dannielle Henderson and Victoria Varano. Katelyn Abigania bowled a 219, followed by Natalie Kent with a 215 and Saphyre Nofuente with a 207.
Vanderbilt totaled 1,139 pins in a dominant win over Prairie View A&M, who only tallied 697 pins. Henderson’s 251 led the way. Kent and Nofuente contributed scores of 236 and 235, respectively. Abigania was the fourth Dore over 200 with a score of 223.
In its lowest-scoring match of the day, Vandy beat Southern, 999-869, in round 3. Alyssa Ballard came off the bench for Varano and bowled a 237.
The Dores dropped their first match of the day against seventh-ranked North Carolina A&T. Despite the loss, it was a high-scoring match for both teams as the final score was 1,044-1,025, Aggies. Once again, four Dores earned scores over 200 pins, led by Katelyn Abigania’s 233 game. Haley Lindley, who entered the lineup for Nofuente, bowled a 226, while Ballard and Henderson added respective scores of 214 and 203.
Vandy bounced back in the last match of the day, earning a 1,072-928 win over No. 19 Tulane. Abigania, Henderson, Lindley and Ballard had 200-plus pin games with respective scores of 232, 223, 220 and 216.
Henderson and Abigania earned spots on the all-tournament team for their individual efforts. Henderson earned a third-place individual finish with a 222.6 game average, while Abigania placed sixth individually with a 218.6 scoring average.
The final day of the Colonial Lanes Classic kicks off at 8:30 a.m. with a best-of-seven Baker bracket match between the Commodores and Cornhuskers.
Vanderbilt bowling will stream all its matches on the Vanderbilt Athletics YouTube channel with commentary provided by Emil Williams Jr. Fans can also follow the Commodore bowling team on X, Instagram and Facebook at @VandyBowling for updates.
