July 2, 2013
CANTON, MI—Vanderbilt ended a marathon day at the NCAA Bowling Championship with the No. 7 seed and will face Fairleigh Dickinson in the opening round of double-elimination match play Friday.
The Commodores won just two of their seven matches but in recent years, Vanderbilt has placed much more emphasis on getting prepared for Friday’s elimination games than pushing for wins on Thursday.
Coach John Williamson used multiple line-ups and played the NCAA maximum 10 players, including seniors Courtney Morgan, the injured Sarah O’Brien for two throws and redshirt junior Lauren Rhein.
Nebraska earned the top seed after tying with Fairleigh Dickinson and Sam Houston State with 5-2 marks on the basis of pin fall. FDU has the second seed, followed by Sam Houston, Wisconsin-Whitewater, Maryland-Eastern Shore, Arkansas State, Vandy and Central Missouri — who entered the tournament as the NCAA’s No. 1 seed and to the surprise of many didn’t win a single match.
The winner of the Vanderbilt-FDU match will play the winner of the Arkansas State – Sam Houston State match while the losing teams drop into the loser’s bracket. Play begins at 10:40 CDT and all games will be streamed live by NCAA.com.
Despite the lack of emphasis on pushing hard to win the games, it was an uneven day of play for the Commodores, who seldom had all cylinders firing at the same time. To survive Friday and be playing Saturday, that will have to change in this elite field.
VU 979 Fairleigh Dickinson 954
The Commodores made two substitutions and they resulted in a par of 200+ games. Kim Carper led the team with a 216 and Tori Ferris went 202 as Vanderbilt led the Knights throughout the game. In addition to the lineup personnel, Fry moved into the leadoff and Goodman went to the four slot.
