No. 3 Vanderbilt Bowling found itself exiting the 2025 C-USA Championship earlier than expected with a 1-2 performance in its mega-matches. After beating No. 9 Stephen F. Austin on opening day, the Commodores fell short against No. 7 Sam Houston State and No. 5 Wichita State.“I feel like they have the potential,” head coach John Williamson said. “But I always tell my team that potential, to me, is a negative word because it means you haven’t done it. We talk about how at the end of the year you don’t want to be talking about a team that had potential.”
Vanderbilt entered the tournament as the third overall seed in the conference behind only Jacksonville State and Youngstown State. Each round in the double-elimination tournament proceeded as a mega-match: a traditional match, followed by a Baker match, then, if it’s split 1-1, followed by a best-of-seven Baker tiebreaker series.
The Black and Gold opened the tournament against Stephen F. Austin. Starting with a lineup of Isabel Allen, Kaylee Hitt, Alyssa Ballard, Victoria Varano and Sydney Bohn, the Commodores narrowly clinched the traditional match 1,025-1,007. In the Baker match, Vanderbilt led wire-to-wire, winning the first game 193-179 and finishing the match with a 1,092-964 victory.
Advancing in the tournament, the Commodores faced off against Sam Houston State in Round Two. Williamson opted to change the lineup a bit, subbing in Kailee Channell for Hitt. The substitution, however, did not provide the spark the Commodores needed as they fell 895-869 in a low-scoring traditional match. The low-scoring affair continued into the Baker match, as neither team eclipsed 200 pins until Game Three. By a final score of 939-913, Vanderbilt was narrowly defeated and sent to the losers’ bracket.
“I feel like we sort of just showed up,” Williamson said. “In the first round, there was a sense of urgency, a sense of intensity. The subpar effort put us in the losers’ bracket, then every match after that [was] win or go home.”
Vanderbilt started off its win-or-go-home mega-match against Wichita State in good position. Using the same lineup as before, the Commodores got 200-plus point performances out of all five players — the highest-scoring being Allen at 236. All of the points were necessary, as Vanderbilt only walked out with a 1,087-1,052 victory.
The ‘Dores started the Baker match hot as well, winning Game One and Game Two 204-201 and 248-203, respectively. From there, however, two bad games set Vanderbilt back behind the eight ball, with the Commodores trailing 817-813 heading into the final Baker game. No ground was made up in the final game, as the Commodores lost 189-169 and dropped the match.
With the mega-match tied 1-1, the competition headed into a win-or-go-home, best-of-seven series.
Despite putting up decent stats in Games One through Three, the Commodores dropped to a 0-3 deficit with losses of 220-200, 202-185 and 208-192. Vanderbilt picked itself up off the mat in Game Four, winning 215-184, but quickly laid back down with an 181-163 loss in Game Five. By a margin of 4-1, the Commodores would be heading home early from the Conference-USA Championship.
“If it’s the end of March and we’re still talking about the potential to be a great team, we haven’t done it,” Williamson said. “They’re capable of doing it. We just have to put our heads together and come out with more or less a sense of urgency. They’re every bit as talented as any team we’ve had in the last five years. They just have to put it together.”
Vanderbilt Bowling will have its final opportunity to put its talent together at the NCAA Regionals from April 4-5. The site and seeding of the Regional will be announced on the NCAA website on Wednesday, March 26 at 3 p.m. CDT.
