SMYRNA, Tenn. – No. 3 Vanderbilt bowling finished fourth at the Music City Classic Sunday afternoon at the Smyrna Bowling Center.
“Today was frustrating,” head coach John Williamson said. “I felt like we competed okay, but we just made mistakes at the wrong time. And we lost three close matches because of it. It sort of put a damper on senior day, but I’m hoping that at some point quickly, we’ll come out on the right side of those close matches.”
Two Commodores were named to the Music City Classic all-tournament team after placing top 10 individually. Victoria Varano was the Dores’ top individual finisher, coming in fourth with games of 247, 183, 235, 210, 195 and 202. Isabel Allen earned a seventh-place finish, compiling scores of 237, 228, 199, 200, 186 and 216. It is her fourth all-tournament team honor of the season.
Despite dropping its opening match with No. 9 Maryville, 996-979, Vanderbilt earned the top seed for bracket play. Alyssa Ballard led the way with a 227. Allen and Varano contributed respective scores of 216 and 202.
Vandy dropped a 4-3 match to fourth-seeded Jacksonville State. The Dores jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but the Gamecocks evened the score at 2-2 behind games of 218 and 216. Vanderbilt won Game 5, 221-200, but scores of 228 and 247 from Jax State sealed the win for the Gamecocks.
Down 3-0 to Maryville in the consolation match, the Dores began to chip into the Saints’ lead, eventually tying things up at three games each. Maryville, however, would pull away to win in Game 7 and the match.
Youngstown State defeated Jacksonville State in the championship match, 4-3. Elizabeth Teuber of Maryville was the event’s individual champion with an average of 229.33 pins per game.
To end the afternoon, Vanderbilt honored its four graduating seniors, Allen, Kailee Channell, Kaylee Hitt and Paige Peters.
“I felt like we competed well, it just wasn’t good enough,” Williamson concluded. “So hopefully we’ll regroup quickly for conference.”
The Commodores head to New Orleans, Louisiana, for the 2025 Conference USA Bowling Championship, which is set to begin Thursday at Colonial Lanes.
