March 24, 2018
DALLAS–Those fancy scores Vanderbilt was posting yesterday at the Southland Bowling League Championship were last seen getting on a westbound stagecoach in this Texas town and heading for the badlands. With them went the Commodores’ chances to repeat as conference champions.
Vanderbilt struggled through a day where little went right, losing to sixth-ranked Stephen F. Austin and No. 3 Arkansas State to end its run at this double-elimination event. Coming less than 24 hours after Vanderbilt was the dominant force in the tournament, it was a puzzling pill to swallow.
“Everything that went good yesterday was bad today,” said coach John Williamson. “Our first shots were suspect at best and our spare shooting was atrocious. They fed into each other. I think we seemed tight from the beginning for some reason; you miss some spares and your arm swings get tight, then your first shots go bad and you miss more spares. One leads into the other.”
Vanderbilt went into the afternoon unbeaten and facing a Stephen F. Austin team that fears it could miss making the NCAA Championship field if it doesn’t win this tournament. But the LadyJacks, supported by a vocal Texas crowd, jumped ahead of the lifeless-appearing Commodores, who committed 10 splits in the team game.
Figuring an open frame costs 11 pins at a minimum, that is more than 100 pins in a 987-896 game.
The lineup of Jordan Newham, Kristin Quah, Kelsey Abrahamsen, Samantha Gainor and Maria Bulanova wasn’t clicking and early in the 5-game Baker, Vandy inserted Adel Wahner for the struggling Bulanova, sliding Quah into the anchor spot. It didn’t produce major results. Just a day earlier, Vandy’s 1,130 Baker total was the program’s seventh best all-time. It was a distant memory.
The loss dropped Vanderbilt into a loser’s bracket finale with Arkansas State and the problems persisted. Vandy found itself down quickly in the team game and while the scores of Newham, Quah, Abrahamsen, Gainor and Bulanova ranged from 187 to 199, it is telling that not a single Dore cracked 200 in a 1,025-952 game in which ASU All-American Jordan Richard was the difference with a powerful 259.
The 5-game Baker changed leads twice but a rash of missed single pin spares on the left lane were fatal for the Commodores. A 9-pin deficit heading into the fifth game turned into a 32-pin defeat.
“Yesterday was smooth and there wasn’t any more on the line today than yesterday,” Williamson said, “but we played today like we were trying to protect something instead of trying to win something. We have a young group (no seniors on the travel team) but we have some experience – people who won this championship last year. Today was just one of those days when anything that could go wrong did.”
Vanderbilt is certain to hear its name called next Wednesday when the NCAA announces the 10 teams making the championship field based on its season resume and it will have three weeks to iron out the wrinkles exposed in today’s play.
