SAN ANTONIO – No. 2 Vanderbilt bowling posted four more wins on Saturday, bringing them to 9-1 while also earning the top seed in bracket play at the Bulldog Classic hosted by Louisiana Tech at Bowlero Thousand Oaks.
After opening traditional match play with a narrow 1,046-1,029 loss to third-ranked Wichita State, the Commodores rattled off four wins to close the day out. They defeated No. 20 UAB, 965-830, before picking up a victory over No. 5 Nebraska, 1,122-1,006. Vandy then handled Alabama State, 1,100-986, and finished the day beating No. 12 Newman, 1,069-1,013.
With a total pin count of 10,380 over the first two days of the tournament, the Dores finished atop the standings in the 16-team field to earn the No. 1 seed in Sunday’s championship bracket. Wichita State will be seeded second after finishing 138 pins behind the Commodores.
Katelyn Abigania and Macy Jones finished the day second and fifth, respectively, individually to land spots on the all-tournament team. Abigania used a 246 in Game 4 to pick up a total of 1,102 pins; Jones’ 255 in the second game propelled her to 1,091 count.
“I was really proud of the girls’ execution all day, even the first match,” said first-year head coach Josie Barnes. “Yes, we lost. But their execution was fantastic overall and we just came up a little short. Kate makes that shot more times than she won’t. I know she was not happy with how the 10th frame went, but when we need it I have complete faith in her. This one just happened to get away from her.”
“I think today was a huge day for Macy,” Barnes continued. “We put her in the leadoff spot because we thought she was repeating shots at a high level that the rest of the team could get a read off of and she really excelled. There were multiple games that could have easily been 170 that she found a way to turn into 200-plus.
“I also think that Saphyre [Nofuente] and Avery [Domaguin] did a really fantastic job of helping each other in the 4 hole. When one couldn’t get the corner pins to fall we would stick the other in and vice versa and they did a great job of rolling with the changes. That’s not an easy thing to do.”
Three best-of-seven Baker bracket matches will begin at 8:25 a.m. Sunday to conclude the Bulldog Classic.