Nov. 5, 2017
It was a tough day at the office for Vanderbilt bowlers. They had one victory sandwiched around two losses to finish eighth at the 21-team Track Kat Klash in Houston.
Little worked right for the Commodores, who entered the tournament ranked fourth nationally but sputtered throughout the weekend, curiously playing teams ranked in the top six nationally very well and floundering against lower rated opponents intent on getting the upset.
Vandy played 13 games in Houston and won seven; that’s below its traditional standard but in assessing the weekend’s play, it would be hard to argue for more. If you are seeking a misery -loves-company crutch, top ranked McKendree was a subpar 7-5 while Texas powers Sam Houston also was 7-5 and Stephen F. Austin was just 6-6 to name a few.
The best-of-seven Baker bracket began with a rematch of Friday’s low-scoring loss with Delaware State. If Vandy fans were looking for some retribution, their hopes were quickly dashed as the No. 12 Hornets blitzed through four straight games.
The tone could have been set in the first game when a missed single pin spare was the difference. D-State proceeded to put Vandy in a deep hole with two easy wins (VU under 170 in both contests) and scraped out a tight win to seal in in Game 4.
The Commodores appeared to right their ship a bit against Tulane, another outfit that had beaten Vanderbilt on Friday. This time it was the Commodores winning in four quick games, posting three games north of 200 and the deciding fourth a 187-169 score. Twice the Commodores struck out to insure wins.
Vanderbilt would now face the loser of Stephen F. Austin-Delaware State and as sports luck would have it, here came Delaware State for the third time in three days. And the third time certainly wasn’t the charm for the Black and Gold.
Vandy eked out the first game by a single pin before a combination of Murphy’s Law and confident Hornet bowling won the next four. Vandy once again couldn’t get five bowlers in sync while Delaware State appeared loose and confident, stringing difference-making streaks of three and four strikes in a row and bowling cleaner games than the struggling Commodores.
Vandy had just six bowlers on the trip and stuck with five Sunday, switching Jordan Newham and Adel Wahner as leadoff and second and closing with Samantha Gainor, Kristin Quah and Maria Bulanova.
Nebraska won for the second time in two weeks, topping McKendree in a rematch of the Brunswick Bearcat Open.
Vanderbilt has little practice time to smooth things out as it travels to Kenosha, Wisc., next weekend for Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Warhawk Classic.
