April 10, 2008
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Submitted Thursday at 1 p.m. CT
OMAHA, Neb. —Vanderbilt’s reigning national champion bowling team came out sizzling and led all teams after the morning break at the NCAA Bowling Championship.
The eight teams are competing for the bracket seeds in tomorrow’s double-elimination tournament. The squads played four team games this morning and will play five Baker games this afternoon with total pin fall for the day determining the seeds.
No team was hotter than the Commodores, who rode the torrid play of its normal fifth bowler and steady hands of veterans Michelle Peloquin, Josie Earnest and Tara Kane.
Vanderbilt won all four of its games, which incidentally closes its season mark at 81-25, en route to its pin fall lead. The Black and Gold topped Central Missouri, 1008-944 and then registered a morning high 1,047 in swamping Arkansas State. The `Dores cooled in Games 3 and 4 as the lane conditions changed but still managed to beat Sacred Heart and last year’s national runner-up Maryland-Eastern Shore by comfortable margins.
Vanderbilt has a 52-pin lead on Nebraska at the break.
Coach John Williamson has experimented with his lineup’s “fifth woman” much of the season and today he opted to go with redshirt freshman Brittany Garcia. She took advantage of that confidence by rolling games of 213 and 256 before cooling in Game 3 to 166.
At that point, Williamson inserted sophomore Ashley Belden into the lineup and the New Mexico product responded with a steady 192.
Michelle Peloquin, a member of the all-tournament team here a year ago, was once again old reliable, churning out games of 188, 199, 226 and 211.
Earnest, last year’s NCAA MVP, was also consistent with 194, 201, 203 and 193 while Kane tallied 225, 166, 179 and 179.
Baker games resume in the afternoon and complete standing will be updated here and on NCAA.com and huskers.com.