NCAA Championship Bracket •
2017 NCAA Schedule of Events
Final Southland Regular Season Stats •
Southland Championship Individual Stats
TICKETS
FRISCO, Texas – For the third consecutive year, the Southland Bowling League will make up half of the NCAA Bowling Championship field. The NCAA Women’s Bowling Committee announced the eight-team field on Wednesday, March 29, which will feature Arkansas State, Sam Houston State, Vanderbilt and defending national champion Stephen F. Austin.
The 2017 championship will take place Thursday-Saturday, April 13-15 at the
Raising Cane’s River Center in Baton Rouge, La. The United States Bowling Congress and Tulane University are serving as the hosts for this event. All matches will be webcast live via
www.ncaa.com, while the championship match will be broadcast live on ESPNU.
The league’s top scoring team in Arkansas State enters as the No. 3 seed behind No. 1 Nebraska and No. 2 McKendree. The Red Wolves finished as runners-up at the 2017 Southland championship in Jonesboro, Ark., falling to Vanderbilt in the title match (979-856 traditional, 1,019-989 baker). Arkansas State has participated in every NCAA Bowling Championship since 2008, but has not yet advanced as far as they did in their debut year. They finished as runners-up in 2008 to this year’s No. 8 seed Maryland Eastern Shore and have not returned to the championship match since, finishing fifth in their last three appearances.
The Red Wolves have posted the highest overall team scoring average (20.276) in the 2016-17 regular season, led by junior Jordan Richard. The Tecumseh, Mich. native averages 21.641 per frame through 1,176 frames bowled. At the 2017 Southland Bowling Championship, she averaged a second-best 20.12 overall average through 90 frames.
Sam Houston State comes in at No. 4 and will compete in their sixth NCAA championship in seven years. The Bearkats last won the national championship in 2014 and will return with a four-year veteran of the NCAA tournament in senior Janine Kuwahara. In 78 frames bowled at the 2017 Southland championship, Kuwahara averaged a tournament-best 20.27, earning All-Tournament honors.
The league’s third-highest overall regular season scoring team (19.485, 5400 frames) are 11-8 all-time in the NCAA tournament. Junior Heather Penatzer has paced Sam Houston State’s regular season scoring (20.254, 2050 frames) – ranking sixth in the Southland.
The newly-crowned Southland champion Commodores enter as the No. 5 seed. Vanderbilt swept Arkansas State in the Southland championship and will head to Baton Rouge for their 13
th-straight NCAA appearance with momentum on their side. They have proved their depth, with junior Katie Stark – who did not rank in the top 15 for regular season scoring – leading the Commodores to their Southland title with a 19.50 average through all of Vanderbilt’s 119 frames. Stark earned Most Valuable Bowler distinction for her performance. Freshman Maria Bulanova ranks second in the Southland through the 2016-17 season with an average of 20.971 (1944 frames).
Vanderbilt is second to only Central Missouri and Nebraska (13 and 14, respectively) in all-time NCAA appearances, having won a national title in 2007 and collecting runner-up finishes in 2011 and 2013.
Rounding out the Southland NCAA selections is defending national champion Stephen F. Austin at No. 7. The Ladyjacks are no stranger to making a run at the title match as a lower seed, having won it in 2016 as a No. 5 seed. They defeated top seed Nebraska in the championship match 4-3.
Stephen F. Austin returns with reigning NTCA Player of the Year and the Southland’s third-highest overall scorer in junior Stephanie Schwartz. The Racine, Wisc. native also ranked third in overall average at the Southland championship, posting a 19.98 average through a tournament-high 120 frames bowled. SFA has finished among the top-10 in each of this season’s 10 events, extending its streak to 41-straight tournaments with a top-10 showing, including finishing among the top-five on eight occasions.
The NCAA championship opens with each team bowling one traditional five-person game against each of the other seven teams in the field. The teams are then seeded accordingly into the bracket based on their win-loss records throughout their seven qualifying games. The double-elimination bracket will then proceed with best-of-seven baker game series.
Follow the Southland Bowling League on Twitter (
@SouthlandBowl) for updates, scores, photos and more from Baton Rouge throughout the tournament.
Selected Teams
| 1. University of Nebraska (Lincoln, Neb.) |
5. Vanderbilt |
| 2. McKendree University (Lebanon, Ill.) |
6. Fairleigh Dickinson University (Teaneck, N.J.) |
| 3. Arkansas State |
7. Stephen F. Austin |
| 4. Sam Houston State |
8. University of Maryland Eastern Shore (Princess Anne, Md.) |
Bracket
The
championship bracket is available on NCAA.com.
Teams will be seeded into the bracket based on their win-loss records from the qualifying rounds.
Schedule (ALL TIMES CENTRAL)
Thursday, April 13
12:50-6:20 p.m. – Qualifying Round: Block 1 (five matches)
Friday, April 14
10:50 a.m.-12:55 p.m. – Qualifying Round: Block 2 (two matches)
3:30-5 p.m. – Bracket Round 1 (Matches 1-4)
5:10-6:40 p.m. – Bracket Round 2 (Matches 5-8)
Immediately following Round 2 – Awards ceremony for non-advancing teams
Saturday, April 15
8:30-10:10 a.m. – Bracket Round 3 (Matches 9 & 10)
10:20 a.m.-11:50 p.m. – Bracket Round 4 (Matches 11 & 12)
Immediately following Round 4 – Awards ceremony for non-advancing teams
12:10-1:30 p.m. – Bracket Round 5 (Matches 13 & 14) (If Necessary)
Immediately following Round 5 – Awards ceremony for non-advancing teams
5:30-7:30 p.m. – Bracket Round 6: CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL (ESPNU)
Format
The 2017 NCAA Women’s Bowling Championship is an eight-team, double-elimination tournament.
Qualifying Rounds
Block 1: Five, five-person regular team games.
Block 2: Two, five-person regular team games. Upon completion of the qualifying rounds, teams will be seeded based on their win-loss records from the qualifying rounds (two tiebreakers). The championship bracket will consist of two four-team double-elimination brackets, all in best-of-seven baker series format.
Tie-Breaking Method
If two teams have the same win-loss record after the qualifying round, the tiebreaker shall be head-to-head results. If three or more teams are tied after the qualifying round, the order of tiebreakers shall be as follows: (1) head-to-head results (i.e., determine if one team defeated the other involved teams, and then review head-to-head results of the remaining teams; (2) total pinfall in matches only involving the teams that are tied; (3) total pinfall for all seven matches; and (4) high team game.
If two teams are tied 3.5-3.5 after seven games of baker in the bracket rounds, the match will be decided with a modified baker format tiebreaker; only frames six to 10.
Tickets can be purchased online until April 10, 2017.
TICKET PRICES
All-Session Pass (April 12-15) Adult:
$35
Session One (Thursday, April 13) Adult:
$15
Session Two (Friday, April 14) Adult:
$15
Session Three (Saturday, April 15 – AM Session) Adult:
$5
Session Four (Saturday, April 15 – TV Show) Adult:
$20