HARAHAN, La. — No. 2 Vanderbilt was eliminated from the Conference USA Bowling Tournament on Friday afternoon after dropping mega-matches to Arkansas State and Louisiana Tech.
“We need to figure out a way to have shorter memories when it comes to days like today,” head coach John Williamson said. “Postseason is hard; the games are hard. Ultimately, we didn’t play well enough to win today. We’ll wait to hear where we’re sent on Wednesday and look to improve over the next two weeks.”
To start the day, the Commodores edged out the third-seeded Red Wolves in the traditional game, earning a 1,041-943 win. Three Dores shot games over 200 pins, led by Katelyn Abigania’s 265. Dannielle Henderson and Saphyre Nofuente turned in scores of 206 and 212 pins, respectively. Despite Vandy shooting over 200 in all five Baker games, Arkansas State caught fire and rattled off scores of 244, 220, 200, 246 and 195 to win the match, 1,105-1,087, and force the best-of-seven tiebreaker. The Dores fell short to the Red Wolves, losing the tiebreaker, 4-1.
In the afternoon’s contender’s bracket, Vanderbilt dropped a 1,028-920 decision to No. 5 seed Louisiana Tech in the traditional game. The Bulldogs kept their momentum rolling into Baker play, winning game 1 by a score of 214-184. Vandy began chipping away at Louisiana Tech’s lead with wins in games 2 and 4 but the Dores ultimately were unable to catch the Bulldogs. The final score of the Baker set was 1,018-989, Louisiana Tech.
Vanderbilt will wait to hear its fate during the NCAA Bowling Selection Show, which airs Wednesday at 3 p.m. CT on NCAA.com.
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