ARLINGTON, Texas – The Buckeye State will have the honor of opening the 2019 Professional Women’s Bowling Association (PWBA) Tour season as Yorktown Lanes in Parma Heights, Ohio, will host the greatest women bowlers in the world.

The Nationwide PWBA Greater Cleveland Open, the first of 14 events on this year’s PWBA Tour schedule, starts Thursday with the first official practice session of the 2019 season. Nationwide is a national sponsor of the PWBA Tour for the fourth consecutive season.

Competition at the Nationwide PWBA Greater Cleveland Open starts Friday with two eight-game qualifying blocks before the field is cut to 32 players. After eight additional games Saturday morning, the top 12 players will bowl a final six-game block to decide the four players who will compete in the stepladder finals.

BowlTV.com, the exclusive livestreaming home of the PWBA Tour, will have wire-to-wire live coverage of the event, including Saturday’s stepladder finals at 5:30 p.m. (Eastern).

It’s been 41 years since the PWBA last visited the Cleveland area, when PWBA Hall of Famer Virginia Norton claimed the 1978 Greater Cleveland Classic. Ohio will be well represented in the sold-out field as 14 players with Ohio ties will compete.

“I’m really excited to have the first stop in Cleveland,” said four-time PWBA Tour champion and Colombia native Rocio Restrepo, who lives about an hour away in Louisville. “It’s pretty cool when you get to see a lot of your family and friends that have seen me grow as a professional athlete here in Northeast Ohio. 

“I’m looking forward to seeing all those faces and for them to experience what we go through on tour and how we perform. It will help them appreciate what women’s bowling does for the sport and what we do as athletes.”

Dayton’s Shannon Pluhowsky, a 19-time Team USA member and the 2006 United States Bowling Congress (USBC) Queens champion, and PWBA members Jen Higgins of Westerville and Jodi Woessner of Oregon also will compete.

There will be 10 non-PWBA members in the field: Courtney Brown and Natalie Miskiel of Toledo, Rachael Delserone of North Ridgeville, Tyahana Elder of Hudson, Katelyn Hull of Marysville, Jen Lucyk of Parma, Olivia Phillips of Milan, Nikki Stiteler of Medina, Taylor Sturm of Massillon, and Emily Westfall of Akron.

Yorktown Lanes also will host a PWBA Regional on Sunday. The PWBA will have five regional events in conjunction with national events on the 2019 PWBA Tour schedule. The one-day tournaments will be eight games of qualifying before the field is cut to the top four competitors for a stepladder final. 

The first four regional winners will compete in the Go Bowling! PWBA Regional Showdown, a special made-for-TV event that will air Aug. 24 on CBS Sports Network.

In addition to the Nationwide Greater Cleveland Open, BowlTV.com will have live coverage of 13 events, including the stepladder finals of the first six standard events. The platform also offers access to behind-the-scenes content, classic PWBA telecasts, blogs, podcasts and instructional content. Visit BowlTV.com for more information.

CBS Sports Network will televise the stepladder finals of seven events on the 2019 schedule, including all four majors, and will feature three prime-time shows in August. CBS Sports Network’s coverage of the PWBA starts May 21 with the USBC Queens, the first major event of the season. 

Visit PWBA.com to learn more information and for complete coverage of the 2019 PWBA Tour season.

2019 NATIONWIDE PWBA GREATER CLEVELAND OPEN
(At Yorktown Lanes, Parma Heights, Ohio)
(All times local)
Thursday, April 25
4 p.m. – 90-minute practice session
7 p.m. – Bowl With The Pros
Friday, April 26
9 a.m. – Eight-game qualifying block
5 p.m. – Eight-game qualifying block
(Cut to top 32 players)
Saturday, April 27
9 a.m. – Round of 32 (eight games)
(Cut to top 12 players) 
2 p.m. – Round of 12 (six games)
(Cut to top four players for stepladder finals)
5:30 p.m. – Stepladder Finals live on BowlTV

2019 PWBA GREATER CLEVELAND REGIONAL OPEN
(At Yorktown Lanes, Parma Heights, Ohio)
(All times local)
Sunday, April 28
9 a.m. – Eight-game qualifying block
(Cut to top four players for stepladder finals)
2 p.m. – Stepladder Finals live on BowlTV