MILLSBORO, Del. — Vanderbilt won three of its five matches Friday and its consistently strong Baker game scores pushed it into lead at the Hawk Classic.
The Commodores have a 67-pin lead on second-place Fairleigh Dickinson heading into Saturday’s play.
Vandy defeated Wilmington, No. 8 FDU and No. 11 Duquesne while losing to inspired efforts by Long Island and Mount St. Mary’s.
“It was actually a pretty frustrating day,” Vanderbilt head coach John Williamson said. “There are a lot of things we should be proud of but we missed something like 17 or 18 spares in the early rounds and left so many pins out there. To miss that many spares and still lead the tournament speaks to the really good look so many had and the strike strings we put together.”
For much of the day, the Commodores piled on the strikes at the Millsboro Lanes. The quintet of Angelica Anthony, Jennifer Loredo, Paige Peters, Caroline Thesier and Mabel Cummins knocked down 268 pins – aided by an eight-bagger – against Duquesne and started off the FDU contest with a 256 that included 10 strikes.
Vandy’s three wins were all by more than 100 pins while their two losses were tighter matches. The Dores struggled in the first game of the LIU match and got into a 73-pin hole they couldn’t escape from thanks to poor spare shooting.
Against Mount St. Mary’s they had a 58-pin lead after three of the five Bakers but posted mediocre tallies to a closing burst of 234-235 by the Mountaineers to lose by 15.
The Commodores began the day with Cummins leading off and Anthony in the anchor spot but they traded places in the LIU match. Cummins was especially impressive during the day, once again striking at a high percentage.
“I thought Mabel bowled very well,” Williamson said, “and so did Caroline when she got in there.”
There was some momentary concern late in the Duquesne match when the freshman stalwart Peters appeared to sustain a thumb injury after it stayed stuck in the ball upon her release. The ball plopped in the right-hand gutter about a third of the way down the lane and stayed there while Peters grimaced back at the foul line.
“Her thumb had swollen and that’s why it stuck,” Williamson said. “That happens more than you might think but usually it happens earlier in the day. We expect it will be fine Saturday.”
Samantha Gainor went into the rotation for Peters and was on her game, striking the majority of the time and filling all her frames.
Saturday’s traditional games begin at 9 a.m. CT and will be streamed on the Vanderbilt Athletics YouTube site.
