This past week, over 200 top female bowlers competed at the United States Bowling Congress' Queens event here at Stardust Bowl and among those 200 female bowlers competing was McKendree University two-time All-American Division II Player of the Year and National Champion Hope Gramly (Prosper, Texas/Prosper).
At the event, Gramly earned an 8-1 record in match play, making it to a four person roll off. Gramly delivered in the 10th frame of the roll off to earn a spot on TV. The McKendree star fell to seven-time PWBA Tour champion Danielle McEwan in the first match on television this past Tuesday.
After 15 games of qualifying over three days the field of 204 was cut to 64. Gramly claimed the 22nd seed heading into bracket play. Her journey through the bracket stated against Vanderbilt's star Caroline Thesier. A 3-pin victory in that match set up a clash between Gramly and McKendree teammate Cassidy Courey (Brooklyn Center, Minn./Mount Mercy). Gramly dropped the matchup to Courey. which placed her into the elimination bracket, forcing Gramly to win six-straight battles to make it to the roll off.
In her first elimination match, she posted a 686-603 victory over long time professional bowler and Brunswick staffer Ashley Galante, before facing Wichita State star Mary Orf. Gramly would defeat Orf by 10 pins to set up a match-up with with Storm pro staffer Lindsay Boomershine, which she won 602-582 to propel her into day two of bracket play.
Day two began with a victory over former teammate turned professional bowler Shannon Grimm. Gramly gathered the win over her former teammate 727 to 573. The next person in the path of the Bearcat star was the reigning USBC Queens champion Julia Bond. The Gramly-Bond match was a high-scoring bout, but in the end it was Gramly that claimed victory by a final score of 677 to 642. The final round of match play for Gramly was against former collegiate standout Shannon Sellens of Wichita State. A 13-pin victory sent Gramly to a four person roll-off for the final spots on the TV finals.
The roll-off featured Gramly, 7-time PWBA tour champion and 11-time team USA member Danielle McEwan, PWBA champion and member of Team England in Verity Crawley and two-time NCAA all American and gold medalist for Team Columbia Laura Plazas. McEwan and Plazas separated themselves from Crawly and Gramly in game one. Crawley led Gramly by 2 after the first game. A big game two for Gramly set her up with an 18-pin lead heading into the final game. Two strikes and good count on the fill ball meant that Crawley needed two strikes to win. Verity got nine on her first shot, which secured the final spot in the TV finals for Gramly.
In addition to Gramly and Courey, who finished tied for ninth with a 3-2 record and a total pinfall of 6,220 and an average of 202.07 per game, several other Bearcats competed in the USBC Queens Open as junior Maranda Pattison (Redwood Valley, Calif./Ukiah Independent) went 2-2 in match play and finished tied for 25th place with a total pinfall of 5.301 pins and she averaged 196.33 per game, while junior Rebecca Hagerman (Loves Park, Ill./Harlem) finished 1-2 overall and was tied for 33rd place after recording a total pinfall of 4,805 and averaging 200.21 per game and junior Kayla Smith (Salem, Ill./Salem) finished 157th overall as she recorded a total pinfall of 2,689 and averaged 179.27 per game.
Original source can be found here.
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