Vanderbilt Bowling opened its 2026 campaign with a battle against 19 of the nation’s top 25 teams at the Northeast Classic in New Castle, Delaware. Five Commodores were named to the All-Tournament team en route to a second-place finish.
“It was a great weekend overall, picking up where we left off in the fall,” head coach John Williamson said.
Day 1
The Black and Gold, sporting a lineup of Victoria Varano, Sydney Bohn, Natalie Kent, Danielle Henderson and Katelyn Abigania, began a set of five Baker matches with a 968-909 win over Morgan State. The No. 2 Commodores then cruised to victories over UAB, No. 23 Kutztown and Howard, scoring over 1,000 pins in each match. Vanderbilt capped off the day with a dominant 1,065-953 win over No. 24 Delaware State, bringing its pin total to 5,094 — good for third place on the team leaderboard.
“On a day where we could’ve been easily distracted, we were remarkably consistent,” Williamson said.
Day 2
The Commodores carried their momentum into traditional-match play, scoring more than 1,100 pins in each of their first three games to secure wins over Felician, No. 9 Mount St. Mary’s and Molloy. The Black and Gold’s massive 1,222 game against Mount St. Mary’s marked the third-highest team traditional game score in program history. Vanderbilt ended the day with wins over UMES and No. 13 North Carolina A&T, bringing its tournament record to 10-0 in the first two days of competition.
Vanderbilt’s entire traditional-match lineup — Abigania, Henderson, Saphyre Nofuente, Varano and Ballard — finished in the top 10 on the individual leaderboard. Abigania was the Black and Gold’s top performer of the day, recording 1,185 pins for a second-place finish. Henderson tallied 1,154 pins to finish fourth. Nofuente, Varano and Ballard rounded out the No. 7, No. 9 and No. 10 spots with scores of 1,110, 1,088 and 1,088, respectively.
The Commodores’ efforts propelled them to second place on the team leaderboard heading into the final day of tournament play.
“[Day 2] was a good day. We established some shot-making for some momentum early and were able to keep it,” Williamson said. “We never got our thoughts too far ahead of us, and we were able to execute and have some fun.”
Day 3
With its sights set on the tournament trophy, Vanderbilt began a series of three best-of-seven Baker matches against No. 1 Jacksonville State. The Commodores fell to the Gamecocks (4-1), sending the Black and Gold to face Wichita State to determine the championship matchup. After tying the opening game at 193-apiece and losing Game 2, 196-166, the Commodores rattled off four decisive wins to advance to a winner-take-all match against Jacksonville State. Again, the Commodores dropped a 4-1 decision to the top-seeded Gamecocks, capping off the tournament with an impressive 11-2 record and a runner-up finish.
“We made some errors that we didn’t make all weekend that ended up costing us, but we played really well all weekend,” Williamson said.
Abigania and Henderson’s stellar individual performances on Day 2 earned them All-Tournament First Team honors, while Nofuente, Varano and Ballard secured Second Team placements.
“We have a short week before we go back again. Hopefully, we can get some time to regroup and go back with a smaller, more elite field,” Williamson said.
Vanderbilt Bowling will travel to Arlington, Texas, to compete in the Prairie View A&M Invitational from Jan. 23-25.
