UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND EASTERN SHORE
University of Maryland Eastern Shore head coach Sharon Brummell on whether her team did not perform up to its expectations: “You come in with the thought of winning. If you don’t think you are going to win, there is no need to be here. I think all of our expectations were higher.”
Brummell on the team’s attitude approaching play today: “I thought we had a fresh start this morning. I think the [oil] pattern is a little bit different than what we’re used to bowling on. Most of the teams that have been knocked out are teams that usually bowl on a more difficult pattern. Sometimes you don’t expect a real simple pattern, and maybe we weren’t prepared for it.”
Junior Maria Rodriguez on whether she felt the team was right back into its match with NJCU after winning the second game: “You always feel like that. We never expect our team to get down emotionally and make the mistakes that we did. Even when this team falls behind 3-0, we still expect to win. We felt we were right back in it.”
Junior Kristina Frahm on changes in the national championship in the past two years: “It has grown a lot. I know the committee changed the seeding day to a win-loss format which is something different. Usually all the tournaments we bowl in are total pins. The tournament has grown and gotten better. They’re trying different things to see what can make this championship the best that it can be.”
Frahm on what the general public doesn’t understand about competing in collegiate bowling: “There is a lot that they don’t understand. It’s funny walking up to somebody and telling them that you go to school and compete in bowling, because everyone gives you a crazy look. One major thing that they don’t understand is the conditions that we bowl under. Most people think of league bowling where you just throw the ball down the lane and score a 250. We work hard at this level. We have workouts in the morning and practice at night. It’s a lot of work to compete on this level. They don’t understand the oil patterns or anything about this game at this level.”
Rodriguez on the lane conditions throughout the tournament: “Of course they were hard, but they were hard for everyone. They weren’t hard just for us. The conditions were fair. We made mistakes and we didn’t do what we were supposed to do. That’s why we were not successful.”
Brummell on whether limiting mistakes is the key to success in this tournament: “It is as simple as who makes the fewest mistakes, who throws the best shots, and who gets the most carry.”
Brummell on having her entire roster returning next season: “I expect to be right back in this position. Actually, I expect to be in an even better position.”
Brummell on her team‘s championship experience: “I think NJCU has done an awesome job. I think everyone here has been tremendously nice. The center is not the easiest place to get to, but it’s not far from the hotel. They’ve done a great job of organizing this tournament this year. For us, it was nice being in New Jersey where we didn’t have to fly. In fact, you had four schools here which did not have to fly which makes a difference with the economy the way it is.”
Brummell on which team she predicts will win the national championship: “It’s going to come down to which team gets the best breaks. I give the two teams with a loss have just as much chance as the other teams. I know this from experience with our championship run in 2008.”
Frahm on winning it all in 2008 and whether that makes today more difficult: “It doesn’t make it any harder, but we know the feeling of winning it all, and we wanted that feeling back. We want to do it again. This feeling today is not the one we wanted. When we won in 2008 in Omaha, Nebraska. I wanted to stay there for weeks. The feeling of winning is everything, just to know that all of your hard work has paid off.”
Rodriguez on competing for Brummell: “It’s awesome. I love her. She is like my mother. She knows everything about my life.”
Brummell on having players from all parts of the world on her roster: “These are my babies. My kids are from such a distance, that I have to be mom and dad some times. I love my girls. They are my girls.”
Brummell on the interaction between her team and her family: “The team is our family, and when one person hurts, we all hurt. They worked really, really hard for this, and God knows I love them to death for everything they’ve done for me. I don’t want them to hang their heads, because we have the opportunity to compete next week in Texas in the intercollegiate team championships, and hopefully things will finish up well for us.”
Brummell on what percentage of the game is skill and what percentage is luck when competing at this level: “I think it’s 60 percent luck, and 40 percent skill. Sometimes its almost better to be lucky in terms of carry. Carry is the key to everything at this level.”
Brummell on the closeness of the talent level of the eight teams in the national championship: “I’m not sure if every team is even, because our players are a lot more versatile with their games. Some teams just throw the ball straight down the middle, but our team is so much more talented. Sometimes I think we’re too talented. Sometimes if it’s a simple shot, we think too much and don’t keep it simple. This is a hard game.”
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
Vanderbilt University head coach John Williamson on whether he was frustrated by his team’s performance: “I little bit, because we had some uncharacteristic missed spares. We were uptight, and we did some things today that we haven’t done all year. When you get to the final eight teams, the teams that get eliminated do things that are uncharacteristic. It’s frustrating, because it’s our last go-around with our seniors, and we’ve had a good run with them. It’s frustrating for this season to end this way.”
Senior Ashley Belden on her team’s attitude entering play today: “I don’t think anyone comes into this tournament expecting to go out in the third round. We were definitely confident, especially since we felt like we had momentum after our win over Delaware State when we went to lunch on a high note.”
Senior Josie Earnest on how much of the game is skill and how much is luck when competing at this level: “There is a lot of skill involved. When you’re bowling, you’re sliding on one board and trying to hit another board down the lane and hoping everything goes well. That being said, there is a little bit of luck. You can look at a couple of the close games that we lost where we stepped up and made some great shots, but the pins just didn’t fall our way. Most of this game is skill, but there is a little bit of luck as well.”
Williamson on how important luck is in the national tournament: “You don’t want to attribute everything to luck, because you have to have the skill to give yourself an opportunity. At this level, most of the great players give themselves an opportunity with the shots they make and sometimes it is luck with the way the pins go flying. Sometimes they trip stuff out, and sometimes they don’t. But you have to give yourself a chance with your skill. If you don’t give yourself a chance with your skill, it doesn’t matter how much luck you have.”
Williamson on how much this Vanderbilt team resembles the team that captured the national title in 2007: “I’ve told this team several times over the past couple of weeks that this is the first group of individuals that I would call a team. They bought into what we were doing and the direction we were going, and they all bought in. Over the last couple of years, I couldn’t say that we were 100 percent bought in. Last year when we were eliminated by Central Missouri, we just sort of fell apart. We didn’t end on a strong note today against Nebraska, but we certainly didn’t fall apart. We struggled, but we threw good shots and sometimes pins just didn’t fall. This year we bought in as a team. In 2007, it was pretty much an aberration. We caught lightning in a bottle and ran with it.”
Earnest on what the general public doesn’t understand about collegiate bowling: “I don’t think people understand all that goes into competing at this level, from the training, conditioning, even the research on the equipment in terms of ball and lane surfaces. I think a lot of people think that they could just walk in off the street and perform well in front of hundreds of people with tremendous pressure and the game on the line But I can tell you that it’s not easy to compete in that scenario.”
Williamson on who he feels will win the national championship and whether the undefeated teams have a decided advantage at this point: “They have an advantage simply from the vantage point that someone will need to beat them twice. If I was allowed to bet, which I’m not under NCAA rules, I wouldn’t bet against Nebraska. They are the champs until somebody dethrones them.”
Williamson on his team’s championship experience: “It has been a tremendous championship here in New Jersey. The attention to detail and the little things that the NJCU staff have done are really special for the players. Even this interview area is something that we haven’t had at past championships. I really want to thank the people who put the time and effort into making this a great championship experience for all of the teams.”
