Gainor Named MVP of Lady Techsters Invite

Commodores come in fourth in six-team field

by Rod Williamson

SAVANNAH, Tenn. — Vanderbilt lost all three of its matches Sunday to finish the Lady Techster Invite in fourth place.

Arkansas State beat Louisiana Tech to claim the title in the six-team field.

It was a disappointing conclusion to what had been a roller-coaster two days, especially in light of what had been a sterling performance in November to cap the fall campaign.

“The things we did well (Saturday) we obviously didn’t do well today,” Vanderbilt head coach John Williamson said. “We had missed-makeable spares that could have won games against Louisiana Tech and Arkansas State and with these caliber of teams, you can’t give games away.

“We had back-to-back missed-makeables in Game 2 of the Arkansas State game and lost by eight pins. If you are off your game in this field you will get punished.”

Vanderbilt opened the day as the tourney’s No. 2 seed, playing top-seed Louisiana Tech for the automatic trip to the title game. After winning the first Baker in convincing fashion, the Dores dropped three relatively close games before rebounding to tie the match 3-3.

The bottom seemed to drop out at that point for the Commodores, who tallied just 140 pins in the seventh game and, with one or two exceptions, the struggle continued in the second match with Arkansas State. Vandy lost games with scores of 168, 140 and 172 with the final score 4-2.

Vandy then lost the third-place match to Lincoln Memorial 4-1 with four of its scores under 180. The Commodores played all nine on their roster during the day in hopes of finding a spark to no avail.

“We have a younger group,” Williamson said, “and we carried the frustration of inaccurate first shots into our second shots. We did the same with the matches. We need to learn how to departmentalize shots and matches. We also lost some confidence and began to bowl defensively. We were not as aggressive as we needed to be.”

In spite of the disappointing day, Vanderbilt’s 8-5 record over the tournament’s three days equaled the best mark in the field.

Samantha Gainor was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player based upon her first-place finish in Saturday’s individual standings and Mabel Cummins was honored on the all-tournament team for her fourth-place finish.

The Commodores will have plenty of time to work out the wrinkles as their next tournament is scheduled to comr in two weeks at the Prairie View Invitational, always one of the quality events of the year.