After a month-and-a-half break, No. 2 Vanderbilt Bowling returned to action at the Stormin’ Blue and White Las Vegas Invitational from Jan. 8-10. The weekday tournament, hosted by Mount St. Mary’s University, diverged from the usual weekend schedule to take advantage of the Team USA trials hosted in Las Vegas immediately beforehand.

“About half our team was out there for Team USA Trials,” associate head coach Josie Barnes said. “There was definitely some exhaustion [but] that wasn’t necessarily anything different from what any other team was experiencing.”

Including the Commodores, the tournament featured eight teams ranked in the NTCA Top 10, chief among them No. 1 Jacksonville State. Though originally composed of 20 teams, the field was cut down to 19 after No. 13 Merrimack was prevented from traveling due to weather.

Vanderbilt opened the tournament by going 3-1 in its Baker matches, including wins over Oklahoma Christian, St. Anselm and No. 8 Duquesne. Despite picking up wins, the Commodores were lethargic in their opening two matches, putting up 946 and 831 pins, respectively. Vanderbilt finally got above 1,000 pins in its third match, but No. 15 Mount St. Mary’s pulled out the upset victory 1,062-1,007.

The Commodores got back on track in traditional match play, going 4-1 and vanquishing two ranked opponents. Though the day opened with a 1,011-965 loss to No. 10 Maryville, Vanderbilt rattled off three consecutive 1,000-plus-pin games en route to clinching second place on the leaderboard entering bracket play.

In one of the biggest matchups of the regular season, Vanderbilt faced off against Jacksonville State in the second traditional match. As she’s done since the season’s inaugural tournament, junior Paige Peters stood as the Commodore’s vanguard, notching an incredible 279 pins to lead the team to victory. Two matches later, against No. 9 Stephen F. Austin, Peters stepped back up to the plate with a 230-pin performance that once again propelled the Commodores to a ranked win.

In the opening Baker best-of-seven match, Vanderbilt rematched Jacksonville State with an opportunity to secure a spot in the tournament finale. However, for the third straight day, the Commodores started the day slow, and a quick deficit ballooned to an all-out 4-0 shellacking by the Gamecocks.

“We weren’t really good any day to start,” Barnes said. “We just weren’t prepared.”

Vanderbilt would still have a chance to compete for the tournament title with a win over No. 7 Nebraska. Though the Commodores once again surrendered an early lead, the Black and Gold bounced back in game 2 to tie the series at 1-1. Then, after a horrid game 3 loss with a tournament-low 158 points, Vanderbilt bounced back once more with a 258-167 win to tie the series at 2-2.

Bowling is a sport without defense. Even a team that strikes 10 times can lose to a team that strikes all 13. The Commodores learned that lesson in the hardest way possible, totalling 222 pins but falling victim to a perfect 300-pin game from Nebraska. With their backs against the wall, the Commodores couldn’t overcome  the elite Cornhusker offense, and Vanderbilt fell out of title contention with a loss in game 6.

In its final match of the tournament, Vanderbilt faced No. 13 Maryland Eastern Shore with third place on the line. The Commodores got off to a hot 2-0 start with multiple 200-plus performances, but the toll of an extended competitive schedule was apparent in the following two games as they totalled only 155 and 163 pins.

The final three games of the series were decided less by who had the best performance and more by who had the least underwhelming total. Vanderbilt won game 5 by a shockingly-low 171-141, then dropped game 6 200-184. In the do-or-die final game, neither team looked particularly motivated to get it done, with the final tally of 192-173 narrowly favoring the Commodores. With that, Vanderbilt would finish the tournament in third place.

“There’s always a risk [of being unprepared] when you leave for a long break and you don’t really get to see each other and have cohesive, combined practices,” Barnes said.

With averages of 219.40 and 218.20 pins per game, Peters and Alyssa Ballard finished third and fourth, respectively, in the tournament’s individual rankings. This builds on what has been a prolific season thus far for Peters and represents the sophomore Ballard’s best average of the season. At 203.20 pins per game, freshman Haley Lindley finished in 17th place individually and was the only other Commodore to crack a 200-pin average.

Vanderbilt will be back in action at the Northeast Classic in New Castle, Del. from Jan. 19-21. The Commodores finished second at the tournament a year ago.

Baker Match Scores:

Vanderbilt defeats Oklahoma Christian 946-831

Vanderbilt defeats St. Anselm 820-745

Mount St. Mary’s defeats Vanderbilt 1,063-1,007

Vanderbilt defeats Duquesne 1,017-994

Traditional Match Scores:

Maryville defeats Vanderbilt 1,011-965

Vanderbilt defeats Jacksonville State 1,092-1,016

Vanderbilt defeats Southern 1,009-879

Vanderbilt defeats Stephen F. Austin 1,024-979

Vanderbilt defeats St. Anselm 982-743

Baker Bracket Scores:

Jacksonville State defeats Vanderbilt 4-0

Nebraska defeats Vanderbilt 4-2

Vanderbilt defeats Maryland Eastern Shore 4-3