April 14, 2018

Bracket Lane Assignments  | Championship Results 

ST. LOUIS—-Vanderbilt pulled out a 10th frame win in the opening team game and blew it open in the 5-game Baker set to defeat Sam Houston State and advance to Saturday night’s national championship game against McKendree.

The match will be televised live on ESPNU beginning at 5:30 p.m. CDT and rebroadcast Sunday on ESPN2 at 6:00 p.m. CDT.

Saturday morning’s victory marked the third time in three days that the two Southland Bowling League rivals have met on the NCAA Championship stage. The Commodores had won the first day, then dropped a rematch Friday afternoon setting up this rubber game.

Prospects seemed bleak in Saturday’s team game as the ‘Dores looked tight and the resulting nine splits and 12 opens were a testimony. But the Bearkats were also struggling. With both teams off form, it came down to the anchor bowlers in the 10th frame.

Vandy’s Maria Bulanova, who began the game strong but was on a string of four opens in five frames, came through with a strike while Sam Houston’s All-American Stephanie Zavala left a split and couldn’t convert. That was the difference in a low scoring, 871-862 Vanderbilt win and the crucial point that comes with it.

The 5-game Baker series was never close as Vanderbilt exploded to a huge lead and with the aid of 202-225-225-215 pin counts carried over a 200-pin lead into the fifth and otherwise inconsequential game.

The big lead allowed Vandy to bowl its substitutes in the sixth through 10th frames with Ariana Perez adding her third strike of the tournament, Bryanna Leyen, Adel Wahner, Kelsey Abrahamsen and Jordan Newham all converting spares.

One of the momentum building moments in the clinching win came at the end of Game 2, when Bulanova converted a tricky 2-10 split, followed by Samantha Gainor’s incredible 3-4-6-7 split conversion to open Game 3. The two plays ignited the Commodores and no doubt were demoralizing to the Bearkats.

Gainor admitted the obvious, that the conversion was not one that she or anyone else for that matter makes often.

“I was feeling good. I was throwing the ball well on the the practice pair and when I came back I just believed in it. I felt confident, picked up what I left and things went well.”

Vanderbilt will be making its fourth appearance in the championship match. It defeated Maryland-Eastern Shore title in 2007 and was runner-up in 2011 to Eastern Shore and Nebraska in 2013.