March 3, 2018
EGG HARBOR, NJ—As the Nor’easter that battered this coastal town Friday slowly became just another big windbag, Vanderbilt’s bowling team did its talking on the lanes, maintaining its lead with an unblemished record at Monmouth’s Hawk Flight Invite Saturday.
The Commodores are the only team in the field to sport a 10-0 record and based on total pin count, will play second-place Sam Houston Sunday morning in a best-of-seven Baker series. The winner gets a second round bye and advances to the championship match while the loser faces the winner of the Delaware State-Fairleigh Dickinson game, the tourney’s three and four seeds.
As was the case Friday, Vanderbilt’s stiffest test came in the first team game against a familiar Central Division foe, No. 5 Sam Houston.
With anchor Maria Bulanova off her game early, Vandy inserted Bryanna Leyen into the order for the seventh and eighth frames without much success. So the `Dores went to senior southpaw Katie Stark, who responded with a spare in the ninth and three crucial strikes in the 10th to allow her team to win a close one, 917-906.
That 917 looks puny but remarkably, it was the third best score in the entire round as nobody was able to handle the King Pin Center lanes. The Dores averaged 192.5 to dominate the pin count by a whopping 430 pins.
“There have been just six 1,000-pin games in the entire tournament and we have two of them,” said head coach John Williamson. “We thought we had a decent handle on those lanes after yesterday but it was tough going for everyone all day.”
In addition to topping Sam Houston, Vandy also defeated Felician, Long Island-Brooklyn, Kutztown and Saint Francis-Brooklyn.
Assistant coach Josie Barnes was also a bit mystified about the cause for the multiple opens and splits as she felt the pattern was manageable.
“We are accomplishing everything we set out to do, it’s just that the scores are a little lower,” the Team USA star said afterwards. “Kris (Quah) was pretty consistent through the first four games and Sam (Gainor) was our high individual. She averaged over 200 despite a slow start; she found a way to go about plus-60 the last three games. She needs to realize she is as good as she is; right now she seems a little nervous at the start.”
Gainor recovered from that modest start Saturday to post scores of 225-235-205, strong enough to finish third in the individual standings. Quah was ninth after a flat fifth game and Adel Wahner was 10th.
The Commodores primarily played five women during the day. Wahner was leadoff and Quah was the anchor with Bulanova off her game. Jordan Newham, Gainor and Stark rotated in the other three spots.
The Sunday matches begin at 8:25 am ET but regrettably the wifi signal in the lanes is unable to handle a livestream presentation.
