Nov. 1, 2014
North Brunswick, NJ—Vanderbilt set a school record with one of the highest team game totals in NCAA history, helping it reach the championship bracket at the New Jersey Jamboree here Saturday. Vandy will play Stephen F. Austin in a best four of seven Baker series tomorrow in a semi-final match.
The Commodores exploded for a pin count of 1,236 – an amazing 247.2 average per bowler – in their third game of the day, spurred by Amanda Fry’s 289 effort, the fourth-best individual score in school annals. The 1,236 pins crushed the 10-year old program’s prior best of 1,156 achieved just last year. The NCAA does not keep such records but it is rare for any team to surpass 1,200 pins in a game.
On the day, Vanderbilt won four of six games to end the two days of play with a 9-2 mark. Standings, however, are determined by total pin fall and the `Dores ended with a total 0f 11,139 to trail host Fairleigh Dickinson(11,386), Sam Houston State (11,220) and Stephen F. Austin (11,162). Second-rated Arkansas State was fifth in the 26-team field.
Commodore anchor Robyn Renslow finished third individually with a 217.45 average, trailing SFA’s Stephanie Schwartz’s winning 225.45. Also strong for Vandy was sophomore Giselle Poss, who by her own admission had her best day as a Commodore.
“We owe that big game to Amanda Fry,” Poss said, “because she was leading off with 10 in a row and set the momentum. In my case, I opened in the first frame and sometimes when I open early it has set a downward tone but I had a mindset today of keeping a steady, positive mindset. I had a goal of averaging 210 and wanted to play my part to help the team.”
Vanderbilt posted steady scores over the long day with the possible exception of the 934 against Kutztown. That game, one of the team’s two defeats, came on the heels of the record-setting performance and could possibly be chalked off as the inevitable letdown after an amazing high.
“In that 1,236 game we were throwing some really, really good first shots,” said Coach John Williamson, “and that resulted in either strikes or very easy spare conversions. In the Kutztown game we didn’t have the same first-shot execution and left some tough spare pick-ups and that spiraled a bit, plus give Kutztown credit, they are a very good team. In college bowling you have very little time from game-to-game and we have got to figure out how to refocus more quickly from both highs and lows.”
The Commodores also dropped a high-end game to Top 10 ranked Maryland-Eastern Shore by just 12 pins, 1,065-1,053, a game close enough that just one more strike in the last frame would have flipped the result.
As was the case yesterday, Vanderbilt was strong in many finishes. For example, in the day’s opening match Renslow struck out in the 10th to allow her team to nose out a strong St. Francis (Pa) team by three pins.
VU 984 St. Francis (Pa) 981
Fry 211
Mosesso 164
Goodman 194
Poss 187
Renslow 228
VU 979 Long Island U 955
Fry 223
Mosesso 218
Goodman, Reguero (9) 184
Poss 185
Renslow 169
VU 1,236 St.Peters 833
Fry 289
Mosesso 214
Reguero 227
Poss 258
Renslow 248
Kutztown 998 VU 934
Fry 161
Mosesso 191
Reguero 190
Poss 190
Renslow 202
UMES 1,065 VU 1,053
Goodman, Stark (4) 190
Mosesso 202
Reguero 168
Poss 246
Renslow 247
VU 1,001 St. Francis (NY) 952
Stark 191
Mosesso 168
Fry 180
Poss 216
Renslow 246
