Team USA advances to trios semifinals at 2019 World Bowling Women's Championships
August 26, 2019
Results
LAS VEGAS - The Team USA women have an opportunity to win a second consecutive trios gold medal at the World Bowling World Championships, and that responsibility belongs to longtime team member Missy Parkin and World Women's Championships first-timers Liz Kuhlkin and Jordan Richard.
The three have gotten more comfortable and confident each day this week at the South Point Bowling Plaza, and the perfect combination of perseverance, communication and teamwork helped them lock up the No. 3 seed for Thursday's semifinals, where they'll face Mexico's Adriana Perez, Paola Limon and Sandra Gongora.
The other semifinal will feature Colombia's Juliana Franco, Clara Guerrero and Maria José Rodriguez against Korea's Kim Moonjeong, Baek Seungja and Jung Dawun.
The Colombians dominated trios qualifying Monday just as they did doubles Sunday, this time outdistancing the field by more than 100 pins. They topped the standings with a 4,113 total and were followed by Mexico (4,010), Team USA (3,978) and Korea (3,962).
The trios semifinals and final will be part of an all-day TV extravaganza that also will include the medal rounds for singles and doubles.
Being under the television lights won't be anything new for the Team USA members, who each have made multiple championship-round appearances in recent Professional Women's Bowling Association Tour events.
"I feel like we learned a lot today, and working together again tomorrow in the team event will help us get even stronger for the trios TV show," Richard said. "I think having the experience we've all had on TV will help, too, because it's not anything new to us. It's still stressful, but it's not anything new. We'll just put together everything we've learned this week, and hopefully it will be enough."
Richard and Kuhlkin bowled together during singles and doubles this week, and Kuhlkin was relatively consistent, while Richard worked hard to get comfortable and find the right ball reaction. Parkin has improved each day and led the trios effort with a 1,398 total. Richard had 1,304, and Kuhlkin added 1,276.
Richard's improvement of more than 120 pins from doubles to trios was due in part to the addition of a new ball to her arsenal. She was able to capitalize when she felt she had her best look, and she was able to lean on her teammates when she didn't.
Two key moments from Monday's six games stand out to the teammates as the reasons they were able to advance to the semifinals. Surprisingly, the most pivotal moment actually came in their lowest game of the day, a 603 performance on a challenging pair of lanes in Game 5.
"I was using a ball with more surface, and my reaction didn't change much, but both of them threw some great shots early on and left splits," said Parkin, a 10-time Team USA member. "We were able to communicate really quickly and make some bold moves, and they then threw some incredibly clutch shots to help us bail out the game. As a single player, it's always a great feeling to save a game like that. In this case, we all bailed it out, so that's why we say it may have been the most important game of the day."
The three knew that based on the scoring pace on the 39-foot World Bowling Seoul oil pattern, they'd probably drop a few spots in the standings, and they entered the finale in fifth place, seven pins behind their teammates - Stefanie Johnson, Danielle McEwan and Shannon O'Keefe.
Both teams entered the final frames of the day with a chance to make the top four.
Parkin and her teammates tossed a string of eight consecutive strikes starting in the seventh frame of the last game, and that proved to be just enough. The other group needed a couple of final-frame doubles and simply came up short, finishing sixth with a 3,938 total.
"The last game was some of the most intense and amazing bowling I've ever been a part of," Parkin said. "It was crazy. We didn't know what we needed, but we knew it was really close. For all of us to come together and throw some clutch shots was pretty awesome."
O'Keefe and McEwan, along with United States Bowling Congress Hall of Famer Kelly Kulick, won the trios gold medal in 2017.
Kuhlkin, who has been in stressful situations and thrown clutch shots as the longtime anchor for the Nebraska Cornhuskers, to win a doubles gold medal at the 2014 World Youth Championships and in winning the 2018 U.S. Women's Open, admitted to feeling some nerves down the stretch Monday in trios.
"We've all won events and been in the position of needing to throw those shots, but I definitely was nervous during the last game," Kuhlkin said. "You want to do the right thing and make good shots. At one point, Jordan reminded me that this is what we work for and why we do what we do. That really resonated with me. We're all winners, we've all been there before and it's just super exciting to step up the way we did when we needed it."
The 2019 World Women's Championships includes 176 competitors from 34 countries, who are competing for medals in singles, doubles, trios, team, all-events and Masters competition.
Competition at the Bowling Plaza will resume Tuesday with the five-player team event. The teams will bowl three games at noon Eastern and three games at 6 p.m. EDT, with the top four advancing to the semifinals.
Las Vegas and South Point last hosted the World Championships in 2017 - a combined event featuring men and women - something that happens every four years.
The 34 countries participating this year are: Australia, Bahamas, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Guam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, United States, Ukraine and Venezuela.
For more information on the 2019 World Women's Championships, visit WorldBowling.org.
LAS VEGAS - The Team USA women have an opportunity to win a second consecutive trios gold medal at the World Bowling World Championships, and that responsibility belongs to longtime team member Missy Parkin and World Women's Championships first-timers Liz Kuhlkin and Jordan Richard.
The three have gotten more comfortable and confident each day this week at the South Point Bowling Plaza, and the perfect combination of perseverance, communication and teamwork helped them lock up the No. 3 seed for Thursday's semifinals, where they'll face Mexico's Adriana Perez, Paola Limon and Sandra Gongora.
The other semifinal will feature Colombia's Juliana Franco, Clara Guerrero and Maria José Rodriguez against Korea's Kim Moonjeong, Baek Seungja and Jung Dawun.
The Colombians dominated trios qualifying Monday just as they did doubles Sunday, this time outdistancing the field by more than 100 pins. They topped the standings with a 4,113 total and were followed by Mexico (4,010), Team USA (3,978) and Korea (3,962).
The trios semifinals and final will be part of an all-day TV extravaganza that also will include the medal rounds for singles and doubles.
Being under the television lights won't be anything new for the Team USA members, who each have made multiple championship-round appearances in recent Professional Women's Bowling Association Tour events.
"I feel like we learned a lot today, and working together again tomorrow in the team event will help us get even stronger for the trios TV show," Richard said. "I think having the experience we've all had on TV will help, too, because it's not anything new to us. It's still stressful, but it's not anything new. We'll just put together everything we've learned this week, and hopefully it will be enough."
Richard and Kuhlkin bowled together during singles and doubles this week, and Kuhlkin was relatively consistent, while Richard worked hard to get comfortable and find the right ball reaction. Parkin has improved each day and led the trios effort with a 1,398 total. Richard had 1,304, and Kuhlkin added 1,276.
Richard's improvement of more than 120 pins from doubles to trios was due in part to the addition of a new ball to her arsenal. She was able to capitalize when she felt she had her best look, and she was able to lean on her teammates when she didn't.
Two key moments from Monday's six games stand out to the teammates as the reasons they were able to advance to the semifinals. Surprisingly, the most pivotal moment actually came in their lowest game of the day, a 603 performance on a challenging pair of lanes in Game 5.
"I was using a ball with more surface, and my reaction didn't change much, but both of them threw some great shots early on and left splits," said Parkin, a 10-time Team USA member. "We were able to communicate really quickly and make some bold moves, and they then threw some incredibly clutch shots to help us bail out the game. As a single player, it's always a great feeling to save a game like that. In this case, we all bailed it out, so that's why we say it may have been the most important game of the day."
The three knew that based on the scoring pace on the 39-foot World Bowling Seoul oil pattern, they'd probably drop a few spots in the standings, and they entered the finale in fifth place, seven pins behind their teammates - Stefanie Johnson, Danielle McEwan and Shannon O'Keefe.
Both teams entered the final frames of the day with a chance to make the top four.
Parkin and her teammates tossed a string of eight consecutive strikes starting in the seventh frame of the last game, and that proved to be just enough. The other group needed a couple of final-frame doubles and simply came up short, finishing sixth with a 3,938 total.
"The last game was some of the most intense and amazing bowling I've ever been a part of," Parkin said. "It was crazy. We didn't know what we needed, but we knew it was really close. For all of us to come together and throw some clutch shots was pretty awesome."
O'Keefe and McEwan, along with United States Bowling Congress Hall of Famer Kelly Kulick, won the trios gold medal in 2017.
Kuhlkin, who has been in stressful situations and thrown clutch shots as the longtime anchor for the Nebraska Cornhuskers, to win a doubles gold medal at the 2014 World Youth Championships and in winning the 2018 U.S. Women's Open, admitted to feeling some nerves down the stretch Monday in trios.
"We've all won events and been in the position of needing to throw those shots, but I definitely was nervous during the last game," Kuhlkin said. "You want to do the right thing and make good shots. At one point, Jordan reminded me that this is what we work for and why we do what we do. That really resonated with me. We're all winners, we've all been there before and it's just super exciting to step up the way we did when we needed it."
The 2019 World Women's Championships includes 176 competitors from 34 countries, who are competing for medals in singles, doubles, trios, team, all-events and Masters competition.
Competition at the Bowling Plaza will resume Tuesday with the five-player team event. The teams will bowl three games at noon Eastern and three games at 6 p.m. EDT, with the top four advancing to the semifinals.
Las Vegas and South Point last hosted the World Championships in 2017 - a combined event featuring men and women - something that happens every four years.
The 34 countries participating this year are: Australia, Bahamas, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Guam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, United States, Ukraine and Venezuela.
For more information on the 2019 World Women's Championships, visit WorldBowling.org.