March 20, 2016
SMYRNA, TN—Vanderbilt’s Senior Day turned as chilly as the stiff north breeze outside the Smyrna Bowling Center as the Commodores slipped to a fifth place finish at their own Columbia 300 Music City Classic Sunday.
Vandy had begun the day facing Nebraska in the title bracket and had a shot to win the tournament but sloppy spare shooting and inconsistent play at critical times resulted in back-to-back losses to the Huskers and Stephen F. Austin before recovering to top Central Missouri in the fifth place contest.
Arkansas State defeated McKendree, 4-1, in the best-of-seven Baker games to win the championship. Nebraska topped SFA in the consolation match to grab third.
The Commodores began the morning with a rotation of Giselle Poss, Amanda Fry, Katie Stark, Kristin Quah and Robyn Renslow. The first game ended in a dramatic tie and the teams traded wins over the next two before the No. 1 ranked Huskers posted some high numbers and pulled away.
Quah, the freshman from Singapore, was a bit under the weather and she was replaced by Tori Ferris against SFA. Vandy came out of the game with a resounding 265 and added a 225 in Game 2, appearing all the while to be cruising to victory. However, back-to-back opens in Game 3 cracked the door for the Lady Jacks, who took advantage and roared to four straight wins. Vandy has 2-0 and 3-1 leads in its last game with Central Missouri and had to scramble to win 4-3.
Vanderbilt honored its four seniors after the tourney as Fry, Ferris, Renslow and Olivia Wirtz were presented the traditional senior gift.
“We made some good shots here and there but the other teams made a few more,” Fry said. “I feel like we could have done better but this gives us a stepping stone to how we stand at the moment. I was really proud of Robyn and Katie for making the all-tournament team, that was hard to do.
“It was bittersweet,” Fry said of her Senior Day feelings. “It seems we were just freshmen. It went by really quick but I couldn’t have asked for a better group of teammates. We will be lifetime friends.”
Vanderbilt honored junior Nicole Powell with the only individual award the team presents — the Harry Stoddard Award which goes to the best teammate according to a team vote.
The all-tournament team consisted of Renslow, Stark, Haley Richard of Arkansas State, Stephanie Schwartz of SFA and the Most Valuable Player Award to Arkansas State’s Jordan Richard. These selections were based on their performance in Saturday’s team games.
The Commodores travel to New Orleans next weekend for the Southland Bowling League championship. They are the defending champions.
