Oct. 27, 2017
Bears teach cubs how to hunt.
That old adage proved true as Vanderbilt All-American Marcia Bulanova and her veteran teammates gave freshman Samantha Gainor a tutorial on collegiate bowling road life. The Michigan newcomer was a quick learner, bowling lights out in her debut Friday as the Commodores went 5-0 on the first day of the Brunswick Bearcat Invitational. Vanderbilt is in fifth place out of 24 teams based on pinfall.
“We knew Sam was a very good bowler,” Bulanova said. “It is hard to bowl well when you’re nervous and I tried to help make her less nervous. We told her what it’s like to travel, how the airport works, those kinds of things. We all encouraged her – you have to get the feel and I believe she is getting it quickly.”
Gainor, the freshman from Michigan, Bulanova, the sophomore from Russia and the other Commodores started strong and ended stronger but had a malaise midway through the five games to trail Nebraska by 187 pins heading into Saturday’s team games. Stephen F. Austin is in second, host McKendree is third and Sam Houston fourth – standings that will surely be scrambled with much bowling remaining. Vandy has a one pin advantage on sixth place Maryland-Eastern Shore, for example.
Gainor admitted to some pre-game butterflies.
“I was definitely nervous when I started but by the second game the nerves were gone,” she said. “Almost everything surprised me to some degree – just seeing how everything works and how different it is from what I have bowled in the past. Everything felt great; I had the right ball and made the right moves.”
Indeed. Gainor had just one missed makeable spare attempt over the five games, a strong start to be sure.
“I thought overall we were pretty good, winning all the matches was a good start.,” said Coach John Williamson. “Everyone in our lineup had their good moments but I told the girls that if this was the last day of season I wouldn’t feel as good because we had a long lull that set us back in the standings. We will have to work to eliminate those kind of lapses as the season progresses. If we want to win this tournament that has nine of the top 10 pre-season teams and all eight teams from last year’s championship we will need all five games tomorrow to be consistent.”
Williamson noticed the team’s attention to Gainor’s learning curve during the week and liked what he saw.
“This team is very conscious of others so they are always looking out to be sure that Sam doesn’t have some of the same struggles that they once did,” he said. “They were able to make Sam feel comfortable and I thought she bowled very well. I didn’t know how much she’d bowl today but she looked good in practice and she bowled every frame.”
Vanderbilt has six bowlers on the trip and primarily used a rotation of Adel Wahner, Gainor, Kris Quah, Jordan Newham and Bulanova. Emily Rigney bowled sparingly after getting off to an uneven start and in part due to a minor back aggravation. Williamson expects her to bowl more as the tournament winds on.
The Commodores defeated Central Missouri in the opener, 981-961, and followed with wins over St. Francis-Brooklyn, North Central, Valparaiso (a narrow 911-909 escape) and Youngstown State.
Scores across the board were modest. Nebraska’s 200.4 average over the day was the lone program over 200. Bulanova noted that the lane conditions seemed to change often, putting a premium on having the right ball for the right condition and being dialed in on where to be playing.
Saturday’s five team games begin at 9:30 a.m. with tourney leading Nebraska one of the quintet on Vandy’s dance card. The wifi signal in the venerable St. Clair Bowling Center is shaky, making a quality livestream of the event difficult.
