DETROIT—Maria Bulanova, Vanderbilt’s standout anchor bowler, has reached the quarterfinal round in the Master’s Division of the World Youth Championship.
Competing for her native Russia, the Commodore star dominated Singapore’s Charlene Lim in the first round of best two-of-three match play, losing the opening game 189-174 before posting the best scores of the afternoon in winning 245-192 and 269-215. She then proceeded to stop Japan’s Shione Izumune, 191-151 and 189-181 to advance to Friday’s third round.
Bulanova will square off against Korea’s Hyeonji Son at 8:00 a.m. Maria had finished the nearly week-long tournament as the 10 seed after singles, doubles and team of four while Son was the seventh seed.
Vanderbilt coach John Williamson has been helping Bulanova all week.
“If we would have attacked differently during the singles I think Maria would have been a top-4 seed,” Williamson said. “She started the tournament in a big hole and dug herself out. Today she dropped the first game and then bowled very well.
“In the second game we were assigned to a different part of the house and she didn’t strike as much because it played differently,” Williamson continued, “but she bowled clean and made a huge washout spare in the 10th frame of the second game to win it. Had she not picked that up, we’d have lost the second game by one pin. She showed what she is capable of today.”
This year’s World Youth Championship attracted bowlers from 37 countries around the globe.
Complete results are found here. The tournament concludes Friday afternoon.
