`Dores finish third at Brunswick Open

Oct. 29, 2017

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Vanderbilt flirted with dangerous living Sunday before catching fire and winning three straight games against opponents ranked fifth, sixth and seventh to finish third at McKendree’s Brunswick Bearcat Open.

The Commodores polished off Maryland-Eastern Shore, 4-3, in best of seven Bakers and proceeded to defeat Sam Houston, 4.5-1.5, and finally Stephen F. Austin in the consolation championship, 4-2. The result was a 9-3 won-loss record in this season opener in a field of 23 that included nine of the pre-season Top 10.

“Today showed what we are capable of doing,” Coach John Williamson said. “Baker is such a game of momentum; we were able to win that first one with a couple of ugly scores and lucky breaks and that led us into the Sam Houston match where we bowled pretty well. I thought we were decent at the start of the SFA match and jumped out ahead before we lost some focus. But overall, a good start to the season.”

Jordan Newham, a veteran of NCAA bowling battles, agreed.

“We had a few matches where we got a bit lucky but I feel that is just a part of the pattern being challenging this weekend,” Newham said afterwards. “There wasn’t always a ton of room for error but I think we did a pretty good job of controlling errors on our end. We were a complete team today, our energy was high and we were feeding off each other. Our wins propelled us, the Sam Houston match was the best we bowled all weekend.”

For the vast majority of the day, Vanderbilt’s rotation was Emily Rigney, who was a mainstay after two days of mostly watching, Newham, Samantha Gainor, Kris Quah and Maria Bulanova. Quah was named to the all-tournament team with her 215.0 average compiled during Saturday’s team games.

The day’s curtain raiser with UMES was a wild and wooly affair and at times it appeared both teams were doing their best to give the match away. Vandy began with a powerful 239, fueled by a closing six-bagger. The level of play on both sides of the ball return deteriorated after that.

With the `Dores leading, two games to one, it appeared they had botched Game 4 with back-to-back opens in the 9th and 10th frames until the Hawk anchor also opened, letting Vandy escape with a 165-163 win. Momentum slid back and forth from that point with both anchors off their A-games but UMES opens in the 9th and 10th frames being the fortunate break allowing Vandy to advance against Sam Houston.

The Commodores won two of the first three games by contested scores and had a 202-202 tie before Sam Houston squeaked the fourth game by five pins. From there Vandy took off, spurred on by Bulanova’s brilliant 10th frame play in Game 5 and 9 strikes in a 255-207 deciding win in Game 6.

The third-place match with SFA got off to a rousing start with a Commodore 7-bagger producing a 243-129 win. The Lady Jacks started that game with five opens in six frames.

With SFA, the NCAA champion in 2015, turning in scores of 129-137 and 130 in three of the first four games, Vanderbilt was staying relatively steady and building a comfortable lead. The `Dores won the deciding game, 197-148, and were never seriously threatened as the Lady Jacks’ struggle with spare shooting continued.

Nebraska toppled host McKendree in seven games to win the championship.

Vanderbilt travels to Sam Houston’s Track Kat Klash next weekend.