March 1, 2013
KANSAS CITY, MO—Vanderbilt started as chilly as the piles of snow on this city’s lawns, warmed up midway through the day and then finished slowly at Central Missouri’s Greater Ozark Invitational Friday. The inconsistent day put the Commodores fifth heading into Saturday’s team games.
Vanderbilt dropped a 20-pin decision to Sam Houston State in the opening game after starting 62 pins down with puny 148-174 efforts, rebounded in a loss to Nebraska with more than 1,000 pins in the 5-game Baker set, then topped 1,000 in beating sixth-ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater and again in a bye round. The day ended with a win over Louisiana Tech that barely exceeded 900.
“We were okay much of the day except for those two games to start the day,” Coach John Williamson said. “We were decent against Nebraska and we had some real good moments in the Whitewater match. We were gaining pin fall and rising in the standings, then we seemed to lose interest against Louisiana Tech.”
Using a rotation of Natalie Goodman, Amanda Fry, Tori Ferris, Robyn Renslow and Jessica Earnest nearly the entire day, the Commodores were in a bit of a tussle with Whitewater when in the fourth game, the Warhawks rattled off a nifty 269 and finished ahead of the `Dores. The good news was that Vanderbilt essentially matched strike for strike and its 256 score protected VU’s pin fall lead, allowing lane choice for the fifth game and having much to do with the victory.
Williamson pointed to freshman Tori Ferris for a consistently good performance on this day. Vanderbilt will face Valparaiso in Saturday’s opening team game; play begins at 10:30 (CT).
Team Leaders
Nebraska 5,199
Arkansas State 5,041
Stephen F. Austin 5,023
Central Missouri 4,997
Vanderbilt 4,881
Vanderbilt Results
Sam Houston 932 VU 912
SH 167-148
SH 217-174
VU 202-161
VU 191-189
SH 198-197
Nebraska 1,051 VU 1,011
NU 225-195
VU 215-202
VU 235-202
NU 212-167
NU 210-195
VU 1,023 Whitewater 946
VU 195-178
Tie 154-154
VU 203-192
WW 269-256
VU 215-153
Bye round (1,034)
VU 903 Louisiana Tech 783
VU 156-138
VU 182-156
VU 204-172
VU 190-156
VU 171-161
