NEW CASTLE, Del. — Vanderbilt ended Friday’s first day of the 34-team Northeast Classic in fourth place after teeter-tottering from cool to sizzling and back to cool. In the process, the Commodores defeated Bryant, 13th-ranked Maryland-Eastern Shore, Wagner and Wilmington before being upset by unranked St. Francis (Penn.).
North Carolina A&T led the large pack, followed by Maryville and Youngstown State. Vandy was 199 pins back of the leaders.
As would be expected when scoring is inconsistent, Vanderbilt tried a number of rotations. Haley Lindley and Victoria Varano were constants in the lineup, and Alyssa Ballard played most of the day. Kailee Channell came in midway through the day while Caroline Thesier, Paige Peters, Amanda Naujokas also had their opportunities.
“We were pretty good at times, especially in the middle of the day, but we were out to lunch in Game 5 although I thought Haley was bowling well.” Vanderbilt head coach John Williamson said.
“I was glad to see Kailee take advantage of her opportunity,” Williamson continued. “She did a good job, as did Victoria, who was our most consistent performer from start to finish.”
Vandy’s pin counts ranged from a low of 926 in its last match of the day—the loss to St. Francis—to back-to-back powerful efforts of 1,082 and 1,174 in wins over Wagner and Wilmington that boosted the Dores temporarily into second place.
A rotation of Lindley, Ballard, Channell, Naujokas and Varano liked Bowlerama’s right lane (6) in the Wilmington win, firing scores of 286, 257 and 233 on that side. The 286 provided the day’s most interesting moment when Vandy went into the 10th with nine strikes in a row. Varano got the 10th strike with one a bit on the Brooklyn side but the 300 possibility vanished when she didn’t connect on her second ball. (As a side note, Williamson said the scoring discrepancy on lanes 5-6 were result of an aging automatic pin setter leaving the pins a bit cockeyed, making it nearly impossible to strike on lane 5. The average bowler would likely never notice.)
Team games begin Saturday at 8:25 a.m. CST; play is streamed on the Vanderbilt Athletics YouTube site.