July 10, 2016
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Vanderbilt Assistant Bowling Coach Josie Earnest enjoyed one of her finest professional tournaments with a Top Four finish at the 2016 Professional Women’s Bowling Association Rochester Open.
Earnest, the No. 3 seed, advances to the CBS-televised finals in Chicago in August along with top-seeded Shannon O’Keefe, three seed Clara Guerrero and fourth seed Carolyn Dorin-Ballard. The PWBA will conduct the finals of its four major tournaments before CBS Sports Network cameras. The stepladder finals will be taped Aug. 7 during the U.S. Women’s Open and air Tuesday, Aug. 23.
As is expected when the best bowlers in the world gather, Earnest had to be razor sharp to advance. She defeated two-time PWBA champion Danielle McEwan of Stony Point, New York, in the opening game of her group’s stepladder, 268-206. In the final match, Earnest defeated Hall of Famer Liz Johnson of Cheektowaga, N.Y., 245-238.
Earnest jumped out to an early lead but found herself trailing by four pins in the sixth frame. In the final stanza, Earnest struck out to force Johnson to strike on the first shot of her final frame to win. Johnson left a 4 pin, allowing Earnest to advance.
The stepladder competition to make television capped a grueling format in which Earnest ironically almost didn’t make the initial cut to 12 bowlers.
“I got caught on a bad pair and bowled 160 my last game,” Josie said. “It was tense for a while waiting to see where the cut would come and I was the last bowler in.”
The former Commodore All-American then went on to enjoy one of her best match play sets. The PWBA Tour returned to Rochester this week for the first time since 1987, and the local bowling community was excited to have the best women in the world back in town.
Earnest and Dorin-Ballard will kick off the TV finals, with the winner advancing to meet Guerrero, who won the recent Go Bowling PWBA Players Championships in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The winner of that match will take on O’Keefe for the title.
Saturday’s competition kicked off with a six-game block that narrowed the field from the 32 cashers to the top 12 players for round-robin match play. The 12 finalists were split into two groups of six for match play, which consisted of six games including a final position round. The competitor with the highest pinfall total in each group earned a spot in the TV finals, and the next three highest in each group advanced to the group stepladder.
Qualifying and match-play rounds of PWBA Tour events are broadcast on Xtra Frame, the exclusive online bowling channel for the Professional Bowlers Association.