2016 USBC Queens

Last week, we had our first major of the 2016 PWBA Tour season - the USBC Queens event held at the Orleans Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nev.

This is definitely one of my favorite tournaments of the year, as I love the competitiveness of the bracket matchplay format. At this tournament five years previous, I also won my first Major title of my professional career in Syracuse, NY.

The tournament starts with three 5-game blocks of qualifying over 3 days. Two of the blocks are on fresh oil and one of the blocks is on burn (the lanes are not re-oiled after the previous squad.) After the 15 games of qualifying the field is then cut to the top 63 players, plus last year's defending champion, Liz Johnson, for a double-elimination 3-game total pinfall match play finals.

At the USBC Queens, we bowled on a 40 foot oil pattern using fire oil conditioner.

I was on A squad and after a ugly 179 start, I brought is back and shot games of 222, 213, 235 and 229 for +78 on the day. I used a Hammer Scandal, pin up with no hole for the entire block.

The next day, we again bowled on fresh oil. I started out strong, shooting games of 224 and 229, but then got a little lost and couldn't match up the rest of the day, shooting 194, 182 and 205 for +112 overall for the 10 games. This put me out of the cut going into the last block of qualifying on the burn squad.

Luckily, the next day on the burn, I matched up quickly using my trusty Columbia 300 Oath and shot games of 223, 278, 214, 194 and 255 for +164 on the day and +276 overall, which jumped me into 32nd position. The cut to make the top 64 was +185.

After the great day of bowling, we celebrated by going down to the Las Vegas strip for some amazing food by famous chef Gordon Ramsey at BurGr. We walked around a bit and enjoyed the Bellagio water show before heading back to the Orleans casino.

After taking a look at the bracket, I had a rough road to go through.

My first match, which is one of the most crucial to win in this event, was against USBC Hall of Famer Carolyn Dorin Ballard. I used my Hammer Scandal to shoot 247 against her 206. Then shot 221 to her 217. I was up 45 pins going into the last game of the match and knew I needed to keep striking to win. I shot 247 and won the match 715-616.

My next opponent was tournament leader Birgit Poppler from Germany. She absolutely dominated all of qualifying. I bowled against her on the burn, which was to my disadvantage due to her higher rev rate. I used my Columbia 300 Oath and only shot 203 the first game to her 244. I then shot another 203 and she struggled shooting 188. Being down 26 pins going into the last game, I knew I needed to bowl well and keep the ball on line. The match came down to the 10th frame, where if I struck out, I would force her to mark and unfortunately I left a 10 pin. I ended up losing the match 617-648.

This put me into the loser's bracket early, which is never a good thing in this format. I bowled my next match against Hollyann Johansen. I used two Hammer Scandals to shoot games of 238 to her 191. Then shot 229 to her 151 and ended the match with a 280 game to win 747-542.

My next match, I bowled against Brittany Smith again on the burn. I shot games of 217, 228 and 204 and lost the match 649-729, which ended my run at the USBC Queens. Although I was disappointed, I was still happy with how I physically threw the ball. I came in the 25th-32nd position out of 256 bowlers.

After being eliminated from the tournament, I decided to watch the final day of matchplay and was asked to commentate on Xtra Frame for the 4-person bracket that decides the final 3 players advancing to the TV finals. It was a lot of fun to get a first hand view of the exciting finals matchup.

Congratulations to Bernice Lim for winning the event!  

Also, be sure to tune in to CBS Sports Network on Tuesday, June 7th at 9pm EST to watch my roommate Sandra Gongora go for her first PWBA title!