Feb. 1, 2007
 |
JONESBORO, AR — Vanderbilt joins 17 other bowling teams this weekend at the Mid-Winter NCAA Classic, hosted by Arkansas State. The Commodores are coming off a second place finish to the hosts two weeks ago at Central Missouri Invitational.
“We have one primary goal at this tournament and that is to regain the consistency and intensity that we had most of last fall,” says Coach John Williamson. “We can’t afford to be thinking about what this team or that team might do, we need to focus on Vanderbilt. When we accomplish these objectives, I always like our chances.”
The field has seven of last year’s eight NCAA Tournament programs, including No. 1 rated Fairleigh Dickinson along with Nebraska, New Jersey City, Central Missouri, Alabama A & M, Bethune-Cookman, Delaware State, Elmhurst, Fontbonne, Jackson State, Louisiana Tech, Morgan State, Minnesota State-Mankato, Mississippi Valley, Prairie View, Southern and Wisconsin-Whitewater.
The Commodores are 38-9 on the year and were second in the last national poll. However, despite the runner-up placing last time out, they suffered several upset losses.
“I don’t think we performed poorly in Missouri,” Williamson says, “as much as a couple of teams gave us their best shot and we didn’t respond like we needed to. They deserved to win those games but I hope we have learned a lesson and will never take anything for granted again.”
This tournament brings fond memories for Vanderbilt sophomore Tara Kane. A year ago, the Greenburg, Pennsylvania product became the program’s first individual tournament champion here. Kane averaged 215 over seven games to claim the title while teammate Kaitlin Reynolds also earned all-tournament acclaim with a 210 average. A third `Dore, Michelle Peloquin, missed all-tourney by a mere four pins.
Thursday snow in the area caused tournament officials to cancel the planned Friday afternoon portion of the event as it could make travel to Jonesboro difficult. The team leaves Friday with the revised tournament now beginning Saturday with five team games. The tournament concludes Sunday with five more team games getting underway at 8:30.