Nov. 10, 2012
VALPARAISO, IN—For the second straight day, Vanderbilt’s young bowlers produced mixed results and that pushed the fourth ranked Commodores into fifth place at the Crusader Classic, where the best they can now hope to finish is third.
The Black and Gold defeated Salem International, Central Missouri and topped Prairie View in a rematch from Friday but dropped games to Nebraska and Valparaiso, netting just 877 pins and essentially allowing Wisconsin-Whitewater to slip into fourth place.
Arkansas State, Central Missouri and Nebraska finished the two days atop the standings heading into Sunday’s championship bracket, which consists of best four-of-seven Baker games.
“We were erratic today,” Coach John Williamson said. “We would have some bright moments and follow them with less than stellar moments, the same problem as yesterday. We apparently have to learn to adjust to the length of the tournament day as for the second time we peaked early and then sputtered to the finish.”
Williamson thought his freshmen acquitted themselves nicely with Robyn Renslow leading the way with a 12th place finish (203.6 average) and Amanda Fry close behind in 15th place (202). Tori Ferris played in three games with two over 200.
The inexperienced Commodores got just one game today from senior Sarah O’Brien, who’s hip got sore late in the opening game against Nebraska. She was taken out for precautionary reasons and didn’t return.
“The team is disappointed,” Williamson said. “I don’t think they understood what that 877 pin game did to us at the time but you just can’t lose 125-150 pins in a tournament of this quality and think you won’t pay a price. Hopefully we will learn from it. Third place is not what we wanted to play for tomorrow but the reality is that third place will have to be our Sunday objective.”
Complete results are found on the attachment to this article.
(Editor’s Note: Bowling fans watching the competition on UStream encountered mixed viewing results due to a weak wireless signal in various places of the bowling center.)
