SMYRNA, Tenn. — Vanderbilt came to the second day of the Columbia 300 Music City Classic hoping to make a big jump from deep in the standings, but the improvement was only incremental, leaving the Commodores mired in 10th place in the 19-team field.
Vanderbilt won just two of its five games, extending its somewhat mysterious swoon as absolutely nothing seemed to come easy. Vandy won games against Kentucky Wesleyan and Jackson State while losing to Lincoln Memorial, North Carolina A&T and McKendree, respectively.
“I feel like we’re playing the shot the way it’s supposed to be played but we are just not executing it,” said a disappointed Vanderbilt head coach John Williamson. “We’re struggling to get two or three playing well at the same time and those people change during the day. It’s very hard to win if you can’t get all five playing together.”
Senior Samantha Gainor had much the same feeling, even though she was often one of the bright spots with a trio of games 200 or higher.
“I was trying to make good shots and make the spares,” the All-American said afterward.” That’s what we were trying to do as a team – we’ve talked and talked about how important the spares are. We have to find a way to change the energy – some people did a good job but as a whole we struggled with our execution.
“We never got any momentum going because something stopped us almost every time.”
That “something” was a bevy of splits with very low odds of converting or just plain missed-makeable spares, the kind a team ranked third in the nation normally makes at about a 90 percent clip.
Caroline Thesier finished her day with a notable 234, the team’s best effort of the day and boosted by six straight strikes. Mabel Cummins, just named the Southland Bowling League’s Bowler of the Month, had three quality games but two subpar scores knocked her well off the leaderboard.
Vandy, which ended up with the No. 10 seed, will try to right the ship starting at 8:30 a.m. Sunday with a best-of-seven Baker match with Lincoln Memorial. The best the Dores can finish now is seventh which will require three straight wins on the event’s final day.
