March 5, 2010
HOWELL, N.J. — Vanderbilt will compete in the Eastern College Athletic Conference bowling championship this weekend, the first time the Commodores have entered this particular tournament.
“We’re going to New Jersey for several reasons,” said Coach John Williamson. “First off, this is a good event. The ECAC is one of the nation’s oldest conferences with many members and some quality bowling programs. It also comes at a good time in our calendar of events as next week we are hosting our own tournament. We’ll see some very good teams here.”
Vanderbilt is one of a dozen teams that will be hosted by Fairleigh Dickinson. The tournament would normally be run by New Jersey City University but as it will be host the NCAA Championship in a month, it preferred to concentrate on that big assignment.
Others in the weekend’s field include Adelphi, Coppin State, Delaware State, FDU, Kutztown, Long Island, Morgan State, New Jersey City, Norfolk State, Saint Francis and Saint Peter’s.
The Commodores are coming off a fourth place finish at last week’s Holiday Classic in Birmingham, Ala. They will travel with their normal eight-woman contingent, four of whom were on last week’s all-tournament squad.
The event starts Saturday afternoon at 1:15 with five traditional team games and concludes Sunday starting at 9:30 with three more team games. The field is then bracketed and will play two rounds of best four-of-seven Bakers to determine the final standings. All competition will be at the Howell Lanes.
Since next week happens to be spring break, the team has lined up some special tours in New York City on Monday and hopes to take in some historical sites in Philadelphia Tuesday morning before returning to Nashville later that day.