Last week, former Wichita State standout bowler Dasha Kovalova won her second PWBA title of the 2019 season.
Dasha did a lot more than just win the tournament. She bowled a perfect game in the championship match. She is only the fourth female to bowl a perfect game in a PWBA event on TV.
Michelle Feldman, Cara Honeychurch and Dasha's opponent, Liz Johnson, preceded Dasha.
To top it off, Dasha's mom Oksana watched the game front and center. It was the first time Oksana got to see Dasha bowl on TV in the United States.
CBS Sports posted on Facebook a great video clip highlighting each of Dasha's 12 strikes. Dasha's Wichita State teammate and longtime Team Singapore phenom Jazreel Tan can be seen at the end of the clip standing next to Oksana.
source: PWBA
2019 PWBA US Open Champion - Danielle McEwan
Better late than never. But it's Danielle.
Last month as the #2 seed coming into stepladder finals of the 2019 PWBA US Open, Danielle defeated #3 seed Shannon O'Keefe and top seed/tour roommate Tannya Roumimper to win her first green jacket and second major championship. Grace under pressure, Danielle needed to bowl consecutive strikes in her semi-final and final matches to win.
I watched the entire broadcast live on the edge of my seat screaming at the TV. I have since watched it 2 more times on my DVR.
Congratulations to former Wichita State women's bowling phenom Dasha Kovalova on winning her first PWBA title, the USBC Queens,
This year's tournament was held at Northrock Lanes in Wichita, Dasha's home turf.
Two of the other finalists, Clara Guerrero and Tannya Roumimper, also bowled at Wichita State.
I first wrote about Dasha in 2013 (see June 8, 2013 entry) as one of the outstanding female bowlers on the European tour.
At the time I wrote the entry, the PWBA tour had closed operations in 2003. It relaunched in 2015. All the bowlers I mentioned: Shayna Ng, Jazreel Tan and Dasha's opponent in the European Women's Champtionship, Birgit Poppler, are ALL currently on this year's PWBA tour.
All have at least one PWBA title.
Here's Dasha's match against #2 Jane Sin (also known as Sin Jane Li):
With only 3 tournaments remaining for the 2018 PWBA season, the next tour stop is in Columbus, Ohio at Wayne Webb's Columbus Bowl.
Bowl Fearless.
Bowlers featured in video in order of appearance:
Diana Zajvalova, Kelly Kulick, Daria Pajak, Stefanie Johnson, Liz Johnson, and the heavy favorite for Player of the Year, Shannon O'Keefe.
Televised today on ESPN, and streamed live on ESPN3 on November 18 (see November 5 entry), a big congratulations to Liz Johnson for winning her first PBA title, the Chameleon Championship,
The Chameleon Championship was the 2nd of 7 tournaments in PBA's World Series of Bowling at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nevada.
2017 has been a terrific year for Liz. She won her 4th consecutive PWBA US Open title (see August 6, 2017 entry). She had to battle way up the stepladder as the 5th seed to defeat 4 bowlers to do it.
Kelly Kulick was the last female to win a PBA title (Tournament of Champions) in 2010. She defeated Chris Barnes, 265-195.
It seems nearly every time PBA announces a tournament winner on Facebook, there is a litany of complaints that the tournaments should be televised live.
As I said in my February 7, 2016 entry, I'll put it gently. The 20th century ended 15 years ago. There are too many other sports venues with larger markets where bowling cannot compete. Not going to happen.
Suggestion: Wait a week or so and watch it on PBA's YouTube channel. Nearly all the televised matches can be found there.
Or, subscribe to xtraframe. Yes, it will cost money. If you're that much of a bowling enthusiast, then it's as much value as a Hulu or Netflix subscription.
I'll close with thoughts on men who comment about opening PWBA events to men for equality's sake.
My rebuttal: it isn't equality.
It's why you don't see men playing women's volleyball, basketball, hockey, or sports. In other words, most women physically cannot match in size and strength to men.
However, when a woman like Kelly or Liz does win, are you threatened by the idea she is better than you?
Below is video of the match. If you watch to the end, you'll see how happy Wes Malott and Anthony Pepe are to see Liz win.
source: PWBA.com
Liz Johnson, 2013, (no US Open in 2014) 2015, 2016, 2017
PWBA US Open Champion
To win a professional bowling tournament is difficult. To win the same tournament 4 consecutive times is tremendously difficult. Liz Johnson did exactly that, winning her 4th PWBA US Open. This is Liz's 10th major title.
For you clueless league hacks that think you can do this, read on.
Here's what Liz was up against for 2017's US Open:
1. 114 bowlers (not including herself) bowl 4 rounds, 8 games each (32 games) in the qualifying round.
2. Top 24 bowl 3 rounds, 8 games each (24 games) in match play.
3. Top 5 bowlers go to the televised stepladder final.
4. Liz makes it in as the 5th seed, averaging 225.38 for 56 games.
Liz climbs her way up the stepladder, defeating Nicole Trudell, Valerie Bercier, Erin McCarthy and top seed Daria Pajak. The oldest of the 4 bowlers Liz defeated is 27 (Erin McCarthy). Liz is 43.
Let that sink in for a moment.
32 games in 4 days.
Bowl with a 218.34 average - this year's cut line to make it to match play.
Bowl another 24 games in 3 days.
Defeat 4 bowlers on TV to win the championship.
The most I've ever bowled in a tournament is 12 games in one day. With a fat handicap.
Tell me now you still think bowling isn't an athletic activity.
source: PWBA
2017 PWBA Orlando finalists
L to R: Birgit Poppler, Danielle McEwan, Liz Johnson, Stefanie Johnson
Earlier this month, finalists for PWBA's Orlando Open were announced. The stepladder finals will air on CBS Sports Network Tuesday, August 15, 5:30 pm Eastern Time (8:30 pm Pacific Time).
Like basketball, tennis, volleyball and swimming, it's great to see women competing at the college and professional levels get recognition for athletic skills and abilities once given exclusively to men.
A recent example is University of Oklahoma softball pitcher Paige Parker. Last month, a video that went viral demonstrated how much respect she got from Kansas City Royals catcher Drew Butera when she threw a few warmup pitches to him.
While not quite the power Paige had in her pitches, professional women bowlers can throw it fast too. Below is the PWBA Orlando Open group stepladder finals. The slowest speed was 14 mph. Most ball speeds were in the high 15 mph range, some as high as 17 mph.
Keep in mind the women shown bowling likely weigh no more than 150 pounds and throw a 15-pound ball - same as the men. The heaviest allowable weight for a bowling ball is 16 pounds.
source: Bowl.com
New Hui Fen
2016 PWBA Tour Championship Winner
An update to July 3, 2016's blog entry on 2 Team Singapore members, Cherie Tan and Bernice Lim winning PWBA titles for the 2016 season.
There are now 3. Congratulations to New Hui Fen on defeating fellow Team Singapore bowler Cherie Tan on capturing this year's PWBA Smithfield Tour Championship.
source: PWBA
Clara Guerrero, 2016 PWBA Players Championship
source: PWBA
Rocio Restrepo, 2016 PWBA Greater Detroit Open
The international presence on this year's PWBA tour continues. Last month, it was Singapore's Cherie Tan and Bernice Lim (see July 3, 2016 blog entry). This month, Clara Guerrero and Rocio Restrepo.
From YouTube's HappyBowlers.com, PWBA Go Bowling Players Championship:
And from bowlingvideos4all, here's the PWBA Greater Detroit Open:
source: PWBA
Cherie Tan, 2016 PWBA Storm Sacramento Open Champion
These women are at it again. For a country with a population of just under 5.5 million (San Francisco Bay Area is over 6 million), they are dominating women's bowling. Two more from the Singapore Women's National Bowling team took 2 PWBA titles this season.
Congratulations Bernice Lim and Cherie Tan.
Here's Bernice in action
Source: YouTube's bosares
And here's lefty Cherie Tan:
Source: YouTube's Mousa Abdullah
source: Bowl.com
L to R: Shannon O'Keefe, Stefanie Johnson, Danielle McEwen, Shannon Pluhowsky, Kelly Kulick, Liz Johnson
Congratulations to Team USA on your gold medal against Korea in the World Women's Championships in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates). Special congrats to anchor bowler Liz Johnson for her perfect 300 game in the match.
A few days earlier, hotter than Hades Danielle McEwen and partner Kelly Kulick captured gold in doubles.
Wanna see how The Golden Girls did it? Here's video of both gold medal winning matches:
As Danielle McEwan begins bowling with Team USA in the 2015 Women's World Championships in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, I thought it'd be fun to see Danielle bowl from her youth and college bowling days.
From 2009 Teen Masters (with a 5-step approach and stronger New York accent when interviewed):
And, as the anchor bowler when she was a junior at Fairleigh Dickinson University:
In case you missed my blog entry from last month, here's the link from November 1.
Good luck to you, Kelly, Shannon O, Shannon P, Liz and Stefanie in Abu Dhabi.
- Three gold medals (trios, team, Masters) and one bronze medal (doubles) at 2014 PABCON Championships
- Fourth at 2012 and 2013 QubicaAMF World Cup
- One gold medal (team) at 2012 WTBA World Youth Championships
- One gold medal (team) at 2011 PABCON Youth Championships
- Four gold medals (all-events, doubles, team, national all-events) and two silver medals (singles, mixed doubles) at 2011 Tournament of the Americas
Other
- 2012 and 2013 USBC Team USA Trials champion
- Runner-up at 2015 USBC Team USA Trials
- Third at 2013 U.S. Women's Open (see my July 20, 2013 blog entry)
- Bowled collegiately at Fairleigh Dickinson
- NCAA Player of the Year in 2012 and 2013
- First-team Collegiate All-American and Academic All-American in 2011, 2012 and 2013
- FDU Female Athlete of the Year in 2012 and 2013
- 2011, 2012 and 2013 Northeast Conference Bowler of the Year
- 2010 Collegiate Masters champion
- 2010 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player and member of National Championship team
This is all very impressive. The long list continues to grow. For the past 2 months, Danielle's been on another planet.
-Wins PWBA Tour Championship
-Invited to 2015 World Women's Championships for Team USA
-Wins South Point PBA West Challenge
-Wins PBA Team Challenge with her team, Dead Money
What's inspiring about Danielle is her poise at such a young age. Her game should be shown on all bowling instructional videos, as her form is fundamentally sound.
You can see it here in the PWBA Southfield Open (Women's Tour Championship):
And as the only female on a team that bowled against the heavily favored 4 Majors and 100 at 1 (Bill O'Neill, Tommy Jones, Tom Daugherty, Wes Malott and Jason Belmonte), it was team work and calm under pressure which enabled them to win the 2-game Baker System match. For me, a big plus to see 2015 Weber Cup captain Dom Barrett appear as a guest analyst.
As I'm sticky, tired and listless from the heat today (86F in San Francisco, 99F in the Peninsula), I'm all about posting something easy. Below is video from last weekend's PWBA tournament in Topeka, Kansas.
Former Nebraska standout Liz Kuhlkin came in as the #3 seed. Liz defeated Clara Guerrero, Liz Johnson and top seed Danielle McEwan to claim her first PWBA title.
Results from this past week of my Wednesday night league summer session came in early this morning. Traditionally in league bowling, the last week of the season is sweepers. Highest scores of the night earn extra cash. While my series wasn't the personal high I bowled in the SFUSBC Women's Championships, it was good enough to capture 2nd place.
SFUSBC 9th Annual Womens Championships 2015
Speaking of which, the official results from the SFUSBC Womens Championships came in. My goal for our team, Above Average, was to finish well enough to cash out. We did a little better than that. Team finished 2nd, and my singles series, 567 scratch + 189 handicap, also took 2nd place. An added bonus, my series was the highest handicap score, which added an extra $20.
It's all good. Reality knocked me down a bunch of pegs when I bowled in a 6-game handicap and scratch tournament across 4 lanes yesterday. I realized immediately I was, appropriately termed, out of my league.
The lane conditions and competition (2 of the bowlers are currently on college teams, most were scratch bowlers) were a lot tougher than standard league conditions. I bowled only 2 games above my average, 1 game at my average, and the remaining 3 games 20-30 pins below my average. I gained lots of valuable lessons from this experience.
A big congratulations to Stefanie Johnson who won last weekend's PWBA Wichita Open. You can see her in action here:
And it's now available on YouTube, here's the PWBA Lubbock Open finals match on July 18, featuring again Stefanie versus Jazreel Tan in the finals match.
As an avid follower of professional bowling, I subscribe to several bowling channels on YouTube. Bowlingdigital.com covers tournaments and events in venues all over the world.
The coolest feature of Bowling Digital's channel is the Flavio Cuvo videos featuring the various styles in slow motion of the bowlers from a World Bowling Tour (WBT) tournament.
Below is video taken from the 2014 50th QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup. It took place from November 1-9, 2014 at 24-lane Sky Bowling Center inside the Sky Tower in Wroclaw, Poland.
My results for this year's USBC Women's Nationals came in. Compared to last year, we did almost the same, but slightly better. We bowled this year in one of my favorite bowling venues, National Bowling Stadium.
In the Singles, Doubles and 4-person team, I should have been but wasn't satisfied that my 9-game average was 2-3 pins below this season's 2-league averages. It's probably because the last time I bowled in the Stadium I did better.
2016's Nationals will be held in Las Vegas at South Point. This will be a brand new venue altogether, so I need to remind myself not to expect too much.
Year Team Doubles Singles Pin Total
2014 1732 814 405 2951
2015 1752 775 433 2960
