Feb. 3, 2018
ARLINGTON, TX—Vanderbilt continued its excellent bowling Saturday, winning four of five matches with robust scores and as a result, stands on the cusp of making the title bracket at the Prairie View A&M Invitational when it gets settled in the morning.
A good pin count against North Carolina A&T in Sunday’s final round-robin dual is all that remains between the fourth-ranked Commodores and a chance to make the coveted top four at this quality tournament.
With the one round-robin left, Vanderbilt sits in second place behind Arkansas State and just ahead of McKendree and Sam Houston.
On the day, Vanderbilt defeated No. 8 Maryland-Eastern Shore, No. 12 Sacred Heart and No. 7 Stephen F. Austin along with host Prairie View. Its lone setback was to top-ranked Nebraska.
“We were consistent all day,” Coach John Williamson said. “Our last game was 250 pins better than the way we closed out yesterday, which has been our only subpar game of this tournament. We harped on them last night to make it a complete day and they competed pretty well. Even in our game with Nebraska, after spotting them a lead we had a chance in the 10th but they executed better than we did.”
Longtime Commodore fans have no doubt noticed this year’s team has an extra gear that some past squads never seemed to acquire -the uncommon knack of stringing strikes.
Vanderbilt can be ambling along, appearing unthreatening to the casual observer, and suddenly its line score looks like a teacher’s calendar that is counting down the days until school’s out. X’s. Lots and lots of X’s. They seem to be doing this more frequently lately, making this an explosive team.
That was certainly on display Saturday at several points, the most noticeable coming in the day’s finale against No. 7 ranked Stephen F. Austin. After two clean but otherwise ordinary frames, the lineup of Bryanna Leyen, Kristin Quah, Samantha Gainor, Jordan Newham and Maria Bulanova became striking machines.
Leyen had a clean 195, Quah had four in a row for a 223, Newham ended with a six-bagger and a 248, Bulanova got tripped up in the ninth in route to a 203 and the freshman Gainor? Seven in a row covering the third through 10th frames for a career-best 253. At one point Vandy as a team had nine straight and a close early game quickly became a blowout, 1,122-948.
“We also had long streaks in our Sacred Heart match,” Williamson observed. “This team has a distinct ability to throw strikes – we can make it rain from a lot of spots. Our job as coaches is to get the team as comfortable as possible and when they are settled in they can light it up.”
Williamson noted that in yesterday’s match with Arkansas State, his team appeared to be mathematically out of contention after four of the five Baker games but began the last one with the front 10, prompting his good friend and ASU head coach Justin Kostick to pull out his calculator to see what his Red Wolves would have to bowl to beat VU’s blistering 286.
Bulanova and Newham are in the mix for individual honors. Bulanova is second (226.80) and Newham (225.80) fourth while Gainor’s torrid finish helped the Michigan product climb into 14th. Amanda Nardiello of Sacred Heart scorched the lanes with a 231.80 average over five games and sits in first.
The North Carolina A&T match is set for 8:25 a.m. (CST) with two rounds of Baker bracket play to follow. Streaming will be found on either Vanderbilt bowling’s YouTube or Facebook Live pages or with BowlTV, the quality stream being done by the USBC.
