March 25, 2009
Top ranked Vanderbilt led a field of eight teams announced today to compete for the 2009 NCAA Bowling Championship in Detroit April 9-11.
The Commodores will make their fourth consecutive appearance in the elite finals field. They are joined by Arkansas State, Fairleigh Dickinson, Delaware State, Maryland-Eastern Shore, Nebraska, Central Missouri and New Jersey City. All five of the prior NCAA team championship programs are represented in this group.
“We’re excited,” said senior Karen Grygiel, an NCAA Tournament veteran. “It is always a great experience to compete against the best of the best and we are looking forward to it.”
Tara Kane, another Commodore senior, reflected on the year and her collegiate career.
“My feeling for the entire year has been for it to be the best year,” she said. “We want to capitalize on our four years of hard work and end our bowling careers the right way.”
Vanderbilt Associate Director of Athletics Brian Reese serves as the Chairman of the NCAA Bowling Committee and has been closely involved in the selection process.
“We take a wide variety of statistics into account including head-to-head meetings, strength of schedule and won-loss records,” Reese says. “This year the difference among the so-called bubble teams was very small as the number of quality teams in collegiate bowling continues to grow.”
“We are honored to receive this invitation,” said Commodore Coach John Williamson. “Over the course of the year we have competed against many outstanding bowlers and teams. There are good teams that didn’t make the cut. This is part of the reward for our team’s hard work.”
The announcement was made via a live, on-line program on ncaa.com. The Commodores gathered in a McGugin Center conference room to watch the news along with a standing room only crowd of the athletic staff, university community and other interested parties.
The team will travel to Detroit on April 8. Team games on Thursday, April 9, will seed the field from 1 through 8 and double-elimination Baker bracket games will start Friday.
The championship game will be shown live on ESPN2 Saturday, April 11. It will be the first time ESPN2 has shown the finals live over its network.