ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Vanderbilt bowling, the No. 2 seed for the NCAA Tournament, weathered the storm to defeat Maryville and advance to the 2026 National Collegiate Bowling Championship and capture the program’s third regional title.
“That was hard,” head coach John Williamson said. “I tip my cap to Maryville. They had a knack for making shots to extend the game and force the if necessary. I admire our group’s ability to persevere and reset after losing the mega-match and win the if necessary. We had really good ball reaction all weekend, and we were able to score, we just made mistakes at the wrong time. It was nice to play as well as we did to end the best-of-seven”
The Commodores dropped the traditional game by just nine pins, with Alyssa Ballard, who shot 209, being Vandy’s only individual bowler with a game over 200 pins. The final score was 947-938, Saints.
Vanderbilt rebounded quickly in the Baker set, winning all five games and compiling scores of 211, 248, 222, 194 and 226 to total 1,101 pins and even the mega-match with Maryville, who shot 994.
The Dores and Saints battled back and forth in the best-of-seven tiebreaker, with the result once again coming down to the final game. After Maryville took a close game 1, 217-213, Vandy responded with a 247-211 win in game 2 to even the score. Down 3-2, the Dores shot 222 to hold off the Saints’ score of 195 and force game 7. Vanderbilt came up just short in the final game, falling 212-198 to Maryville.
Because the NCAA Regional follows a double-elimination format and Vanderbilt had not yet lost a match, the teams moved to an if-necessary, best-of-seven Baker set to determine the regional champion. The Dores took the first game, 192-183. In game 2, Vandy struck the first seven frames, totaling 244 pins for the game. The Commodores took a 3-0 advantage, winning game 3 by a score of 240-182, ending with eight consecutive strikes. Vanderbilt finished off the sweep with a 192-168 win in game 4 to punch its ticket to the Final Four.
The NCAA Bowling Championship will be Friday and Saturday in Wickliffe, Ohio. Vanderbilt will be joined by the champions from the three other regions, top-seeded Jacksonville State, No. 3 seeded Arkansas State and Wichita State.
Fans can follow Vanderbilt bowling on Facebook, Instagram and X at @VandyBowling.
