Jan. 17, 2015
JONESBORO, ARK—Vanderbilt handed No. 1 rated Nebraska its lone loss of the tournament to highlight Vanderbilt’s uneven day at the Mid-Winter Classic Saturday.The Commodores finished the two days of team games in sixth place and the best they can place in Sunday’s championship bracket Baker games is third. They will play Stephen F. Austin in the first match.
The Black and Gold also defeated Alabama State and Louisiana Tech while losing to McKendree. Vandy also had a bye game in which the pin fall counted in team standings.
The game with the Huskers was the first of the day and it was memorable for several reasons.
Sophomore Giselle Poss bowled in the fourth slot and was matched with Nebraska freshman Julia Bond in the lineup. Both began the game making seven consecutive strikes before Bond stumbled to an open frame in the eighth. Poss would strike, then open in the ninth and ended up at 257.
As Poss slightly tapered, junior Robyn Renslow was just heating up. The Californian finished with a blazing seven in a row to seal the win, rolling a 243 in the process.
“We had talked last night about how we were not competing like we should be so we went into the game determined to compete and trust in our abilities,” Poss said afterward. “Nebraska is a great team and they fought back like we expected but we hung together when the game was on the line. I thought before the transition I had a really good line and I was focused on winning the game.”
Vandy’s bye game came right after the adrenaline rush of the Husker victory and while the ‘Dores pushed hard to keep momentum, the lanes were starting to transition and they could only produce 942 pins, not what they wanted.
“We didn’t adjust as quickly to the transition as we should have but we were not throwing good shots at the time and that complicated things,” said Coach John Williamson.
Poss says the team either plays very well or struggles in bye games and she agreed with the coach, saying “we weren’t repeating shots and were missing spares. Against McKendree we lost all the momentum we had after Nebraska and while we regained it later, it was too late.”
Poss said the team’s goal for tomorrow is to place third.
“That’s our championship now. We go in with a clean slate and will focus on winning Baker game matches. The Baker format will be good for us.”
Nebraska had a huge pin count lead on second-place Maryland-Eastern Shore after the 10 team games. Arkansas State and Central Missouri also reached the title bracket. The Huskers also had the two top individual bowlers in Bond and Liz Kuhlkin. No Commodore was among the individual leaders.
Complete tournament information is found on host Arkansas State’s web site, astateredwolves.com.
Vanderbilt’s Saturday results
VU 1,065 Neb 1,039
Reguero 180
Goodman 193
Mosesso 192
Poss 257
Renslow 243
Bye Round
Reguero 183
Goodman 203
Mosesso 167
Poss 230
Renslow 159
McKendree 926 VU 882
Reguero 214
Goodman, Ferris (9) 167
Mosesso 157
Poss 174
Renslow 170
VU 1,009 Ala St. 829
Reguero 195
Stark 225
Ferris 191
Poss 189
Renslow 209
VU 1,000 La. Tech 809
Stark 202
Reguero 141
Ferris 214
Poss 196
Renslow 247
