No. 3 Vanderbilt Bowling kicked off its fall season at the Chelsea Gilliam Penguin Classic, hosted by reigning NCAA champion Youngstown State at Holiday Bowl in Youngstown, Ohio. The Commodores faced a stacked field of nine ranked opponents at the event, including the top four ranked teams in the entire country. Vanderbilt took fifth place in the tournament.
On Day 1, the Commodores won all five of their matches to sit in second place in the team standings. Vanderbilt amassed 5,266 pins on the day, just 138 pins shy of leader Nebraska.
The ‘Dores got the day started with a win over defending national champion Youngstown State, 1,016-980, utilizing a lineup of Victoria Varano, Haley Lindley, Alyssa Ballard, Katelyn Abigania and Dannielle Henderson. They followed this up with quality wins over Lewis, Western Illinois and Mercyhurst.
A final tight 1,011-996 win over No. 20 Wright State was enough to earn Vanderbilt an undefeated record after Day 1.
“It was a solid first day with some competitive matches,” head coach John Williamson said. “We found opportunities to make shots when they were important. The energy and team dynamic were outstanding all day — really a tribute to the upperclassmen for setting the standard. I thought Alyssa [Ballard], Dannielle [Henderson] and Katelyn [Abigania] were very good today.”
The Commodores couldn’t quite keep up the momentum from their hot start, though, going 3-2 in matches on Day 2. They picked up an early win over Duquesne, 981-873, with the lineup of Avery Domaguin, Varano, Ballard, Abigania and Henderson. This was the team’s only sub-1000 pin performance of the tournament.
In match 2, the ‘Dores defeated Saint Anselm by a score of 1,032-848. The ‘Dores then totaled 1,098 pins in their win over No. 14 Mount St. Mary’s, their highest score of the day. Abigania’s 257 led the way, followed by scores of 245 from Henderson and 226 from Natalie Kent.
Vanderbilt dropped its final two matches of the day to Arkansas State and Jacksonville State, rounding off a solid day for the Commodores as they earned the No. 3 seed heading into the final day.
“It was a good day, not as clean, but we were very consistent,” Williamson said. “We just weren’t able to create the high numbers we had yesterday. We did enough to make the top four and have a chance to win the event tomorrow. Dannielle [Henderson] was very consistent today.”
The format on Day 3 changed to a best-of-seven Baker bracket. Vanderbilt started off with a six-game defeat to Arkansas State, losing three of the first four sets to lose early momentum. Reigning national champion Youngstown State was up next, but the Commodores also lost the match in seven games despite mounting a late comeback.
Vanderbilt finally took down Sacred Heart to finish the event in fifth place, tying the match at 2-2 before winning the last two sets, 221-202 and 213-210, respectively.
“We struggled at the start of today competing at a level we had all weekend but did a decent job rebounding in Rounds 2 and 3,” Williamson said. “It will be a quick week to process what went right and wrong but overall, a strong performance in our first event.”
Vanderbilt will return to action at the Destination Orlando from Oct. 24-26 in Orlando, Florida.
