Jan. 15, 2009
Vanderbilt’s bowlers begin the spring portion of their schedule this weekend at the Mid-Winter Invitational, hosted by Arkansas State and held at the ALLFAM Bowling and Entertainment Center at Cabot, Ark.
The tournament ends a lengthy holiday break from a fall season that produced three championships in three tries and impressed Ten Pin Coaches voters to rank the Commodores No. 1 nationally.
The weekend is also a return to a tournament that has historically not been fruitful for Vanderbilt. A year ago the Black and Gold experienced their season low here, a disappointing ninth place finish that was easily the poorest showing in the last four years.
“All of that is history,” says Coach John Williamson. “Last year is history and this fall is history; we are just thinking about this weekend. We are at a new site for this tournament and we look forward to some new competition. During the fall we played mainly the eastern teams, now we pick up some very good Central Region opponents.”
Those new season foes include host and sixth-ranked Arkansas State, last year’s national runner-up, and No. 2 rated Nebraska, which also enjoyed a good fall season of success.
Competition gets underway Friday at 10:00 a.m. with five team games. Saturday features Baker games starting at 9:40 and Sunday there will be two Baker games at 8:30, then Baker bracket finals at 10:30.
The Commodores will travel seven to the event: seniors Tara Kane, Michelle Peloquin and Karen Grygiel; junior Josie Earnest, sophomores Brittany Garcia and Amanda Halter and freshman Brittni Hamilton.