Wild day ends in seventh place

MILWAUKEE, WIS — For much of Friday’s first round at the Warhawk Open, Vanderbilt’s bowlers played with fire and got burned in the process. In the final match of the afternoon the Commodores used a flame-thrower of their own to scorch an opponent, ending a wild opening day in which a county fair’s Loop-o-Plane would have provided stability.

When the smoke had cleared Vanderbilt had won just two matches – the first and the last ones – while dropping the middle three to rated opponents to end the day in seventh place.  McKendree leads the pack of 18 teams with 5,388 pins; Vandy’s total was 4,957.

The tourney began innocently enough with the Commodores downing Youngstown State by a “routine”, 984-880, score.  That was the end of any normalcy on the scoresheets.  Vandy’s next four opponents averaged – averaged! – an astounding 1,068.75 in the 5-Game Baker format.   Despite those ozone-scrapping numbers, the Commodores managed to win the finale with one of the top efforts in school history.

After withstanding No. 2 ranked McKendree racking  up 1,087 pins, No. 3 Nebraska pouring it on with 1,071 and No. 22 Maryville coming in with a 998 to exceed Vanderbilt’s more modest pin counts, No. 6 ranked Stephen F. Austin began the day’s last match with games of 221-257 and 258.  Yikes!

Except this time Vanderbilt was stringing big-time scores of 287-206-216-241-192 of its own for a five-game total of 1,142 – the fifth best 5-game Baker in school annals. SFA’s powerful 1,119 total ended in defeat, a rarity to knock down that much wood and come up empty.

“For much of the day we lacked a sense of urgency,” said Coach John Williamson. “We were able to salvage something with the closing match; we were down in that one after three games so it was good to show some resiliency.”

Vanderbilt’s flashy 287 was fashioned by a rotation of Emily Rigney, Bryanna Leyen, Brogan Zengel, Kristin Quah and Maria Bulanova.  That quintet began with the front 10 before Bulanova’s second ball in the 10th left three pins.  The 287 ranks as the ninth best Baker set in program history.

Rigney and Leyen had come off the bench and Zengel was making her collegiate debut.

“Bryanna was our best player today,” Williamson said. “We put Brogan into the rotation at the end of the Maryville match because we were out of wood and I wanted her to get some experience. She made a big split conversion in the SFA match.  Emily did a good job.”

Throughout much of the afternoon, the Commodores shuffled their lineup looking to find the necessary spark.  The answer seemed to come late in the Maryville match when a fifth game 235 showed a flicker of hope.  That uptick continued into the SFA match.

Saturday’s 5 team games begin at 9:30 a.m. at the AMF West Bowl.  The Commodores are playing the teeth of the tournament once again with pending matches with Arkansas State, Sam Houston, host Wisconsin-Whitewater and Lincoln Memorial – a 2018 NCAA Championship qualifier.