MALAYSIA’S SIN WINS 2017 PEPSI PWBA LINCOLN OPEN
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Malaysia’s Sin Li Jane was the top seed for the stepladder finals at two consecutive Professional Women’s Bowling Association tournaments, and the experiences couldn’t have been more different.
After a disappointing loss to her own teammate in her first opportunity, the resilient right-hander confidently returned to the CBS Sports Network television set at The Ashwaubenon Bowling Alley and opened the title match of the 2017 Pepsi PWBA Lincoln Open with five consecutive strikes.
Sin, 25, cruised to a 222-186 victory over amateur Thashaina Seraus of Aruba in the final of the PWBA Lincoln Open and joins her teammate, Siti Rahman, in the record book as the second Malaysian player to claim a PWBA Tour title.
The win earned Sin $10,000 and a spot in the season-ending Smithfield PWBA Tour Championship in Richmond, Virginia, a 16-player invitation-only event that will include the winners and top point-earners from the 2017 PWBA Tour season.
“After I lost in the Wichita event, I knew I had one more chance, and we started joking that since (Siti) was going to the Tour Championship, she’d probably need a roommate,” said Sin, who opened in the first three frames of the PWBA Wichita Open title match against Rahman and fell 221-170. “The loss didn’t get me down, it made me come back even stronger. I looked forward to the second chance. I just had to remember it was a different event and different lane condition.”
Sin was dominant on her way to the No. 1 seed at the PWBA Wichita Open but edged Seraus by just 32 pins to claim the top spot for the championship round in Lincoln a week later.
Overall, the six-player Malaysian contingent, supported by their country’s National Sports Council, had a successful four-event stint on the PWBA Tour this year, tallying four TV appearances and two titles.
They competed in the Wichita, Lincoln and Detroit events and finished the trip with all six players cashing at the 2017 Go Bowling PWBA Players Championship.
They’ll now spend time at home preparing for the 2017 Southeast Asian Games, which will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in August.
“Winning here was a dream come true for me as something I’ve thought about since I was very young,” Sin said. “I heard a lot about the PWBA Tour, especially when Shalin (Zulkifli) came to bowl, so it was something I hoped to do, too. I was disappointed when I heard the Tour went away (2003) but very excited when it came back (2015). It feels great to be a PWBA champion.”
The 2017 PWBA Lincoln Open was just the second event for Seraus, a top collegiate competitor and recent graduate of Maryland Eastern Shore.
The 26-year-old right-hander performed like a veteran in her PWBA television debut, topping PWBA spokesperson Kelly Kulick of Union, New Jersey, 222-142, to set up the meeting with Sin.
Seraus struck three times in the first five frames to build a 25-pin lead, and Kulick opened four times in the second half of the game to end her run at her second title in 2017. Kulick won the recent PWBA Fountain Valley Open for her first victory since the relaunch of the Tour in 2015.
The opening game of the PWBA Lincoln Open stepladder featured a rematch of the title tilt at the 2017 Go Bowling PWBA Players Championship and allowed Kulick to earn some redemption against two-time reigning PWBA Player of the Year Liz Johnson of Deerfield, Illinois.
In this showdown, Kulick, 40, built an 11-pin lead after five frames and cruised to a 207-159 victory, as Johnson, a 43-year-old United States Bowling Congress Hall of Famer, opened in her last three frames.
Johnson has had a successful 2017 campaign as she looks for her third consecutive player-of-the-year honor. The PWBA Lincoln Open marked her fifth consecutive championship round appearance.
During that stretch, Johnson collected wins at the PWBA Storm Sacramento Open and Players Championship, and a runner-up finish at the USBC Queens.
All qualifying and match-play rounds of the Pepsi PWBA Lincoln Open were held at Sun Valley Lanes in Lincoln, Nebraska, on June 9-10.
The stepladder was held June 25 at The Ashwaubenon Bowling Alley in conjunction with the live championship round of the 2017 Go Bowling PWBA Players Championship, the second major of the 2017 PWBA Tour season, and the finals of the PWBA Wichita Open and PWBA Greater Detroit Open.
Johnson topped Kulick to win the PWBA Players Championship for her ninth major title, while Rahman was victorious at the Wichita Open to become the first player from Malaysia to win a PWBA Tour title.
The finals of the Greater Detroit Open will air July 18 at 8 p.m. Eastern and feature England’s Verity Crawley, 2012 Queens champion Diandra Asbaty of Chicago, Colombia’s Juliana Franco and Daria Pajak of Poland.
For more information on the PWBA Tour, visit PWBA.com.
About the PWBA
The Professional Women’s Bowling Association (PWBA) originally was formed in 1960. The PWBA Tour has events throughout the country, offering high-level competition and top prize money for women bowlers. The PWBA is supported by the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America (BPAA) and the United States Bowling Congress (USBC).
2017 PEPSI PWBA LINCOLN OPEN
At The Ashwaubenon Bowling Alley, Green Bay, Wis.
Final standings
1, Sin Li Jane, Malaysia, 222 (one game), $10,000
2, Thashaina Seraus (a), Aruba, 408 (two games), $5,000
3, Kelly Kulick, Union, N.J., 349 (two games), $3,500
4, Liz Johnson, Deerfield, Ill., 159 (one game), $3,000
Stepladder results
Match One – Kulick def. Johnson, 207-159
Semifinal – Seraus def. Kulick, 222-142
Championship – Sin def. Seraus, 222-186
LINCOLN, Neb. – For the second consecutive week, Sin Li Jane of Malaysia was the player to beat on the Professional Women’s Bowling Association Tour, this time earning the top seed for the stepladder finals of the 2017 Pepsi PWBA Lincoln Open.
Sin entered the final game of match play Saturday at Sun Valley Lanes just six pins ahead of amateur Thashaina Seraus of Aruba in the race for the No. 1 seed, and a position-round win over Kelly Kulick of Union, New Jersey, allowed Sin to maintain her advantage.
The 25-year-old right-hander compiled a 5-1 record and topped the Group B match-play standings with a 5,011 total, which included 30 bonus pins for each win. Seraus led the way in the Group A standings with 4,979 total and earned the No. 2 seed for the stepladder based on total pinfall for the week, including bonus pins for each win in match play.
The two will be joined in the championship round by No. 3 Liz Johnson of Deerfield, Illinois, and No. 4 Kulick, who advanced by winning their respective group stepladders.
Sin, a member of Team Malaysia, now has made four TV finals in seven PWBA events, including earning the top seed for last week’s PWBA Wichita Open, the first event of her 2017 PWBA Tour campaign.
Despite the continued success, Sin understands there still is work to be done.
“I’m glad to finish as the top seed, but the work is not done yet,” said Sin, who was the women’s champion at the 2016 Malaysian International Open. “The pattern was quite difficult this week, but I just focused on what I’m supposed to do. The most important thing was to repeat shots. If I couldn’t repeat on this lane condition, it would’ve been very difficult for me. Spares were very important, too. I will keep working to maintain my focus of what I’m supposed to do and we will see what will happen in Wisconsin.”
The stepladder finals of both the Pepsi PWBA Lincoln Open and PWBA Wichita Open will be taped for broadcast June 25 at The Ashwaubenon Bowling Alley, one of four telecasts at the Go Bowling PWBA Players Championship, the second major of the season. The Pepsi PWBA Lincoln Open will air Tuesday, July 11, at 8 p.m. Eastern on CBS Sports Network.
Johnson, who is showing no signs of slowing down in 2017, defeated Diana Zavjalova of Latvia, 188-176, in the Group A final to qualify for her fifth consecutive TV show, one shy of the record of six, shared by USBC Hall of Famers Carolyn Dorin-Ballard (2001, 1997), Carol Gianotti (1992), Nikki Gianulias (1986) and Lisa Wagner (1985).
In the final match, Zavjalova had a chance to shut out Johnson late in the game, but an open in the ninth frame all but ended her chances. Johnson spared in the final frame to secure the victory.
“It’s hard to believe I’m still doing this as long as I’ve been doing it,” Johnson said. “I may say this one hundred million times, but I don’t take it for granted. When you feel you can’t physically do something as well as others, your mentality, your brain and your heart come into play. So, that’s what I think I’ve been going on. Maybe it’s not my “A” game, my “B” game, but I work with that “C” and “D” game, week in and week out. I take everything one game, one shot at a time. You can never let yourself get down. You just pick yourself up and move on to the next game or next frame and never give up.”
Zavjalova defeated Maria Jose Rodriguez of Colombia, 255-197, in the Group A semifinal to earn the meeting with Johnson.
Seraus, who recently finished her senior season at Maryland Eastern Shore and was competing as an amateur, wasn’t sure after her position-round match with Johnson ended if she had done enough to earn an automatic spot on the show. After confirmation from friends in the crowd, Seraus celebrated the realization of a dream.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t have words,” said Seraus, a two-time National Tenpin Coaches Association First-Team All-American. “During the game, I wasn’t paying attention to the score, so after the final shot, I asked Anggie (Ramirez Perea) if I made it, and she said yes. It’s something I dreamed about when I was younger. My dream was to compete against these amazing women I watched. I knew I had a shot at doing it one day, but I never thought I would be up there with them. It’s an amazing feeling. It hasn’t sunk in yet, but it’s amazing.”
Kulick will make her second TV appearance of the season, bringing her total to 12 championship-round appearances since the relaunch of the PWBA Tour in 2015.
She ran the ladder in Group B, defeating Kristina Szczerbinski of North Tonawanda, New York, 210-176, in the semifinal, and Colombia native Rocio Restrepo of Louisville, Ohio, 203-187, in the final.
Competition this week at the Pepsi PWBA Lincoln Open included two six-game qualifying blocks Friday to determine the 32 players for Saturday’s cashers’ round.
An additional six-game block Saturday morning narrowed the field from the 32 cashers to 12 players for round-robin match play.
The 2017 PWBA Tour season continues next week with the PWBA Greater Detroit Open at Super Bowl in Canton, Michigan.
Go to PWBA.com for more information about the PWBA Tour. Qualifying and match-play rounds of PWBA Tour events are broadcast on Xtra Frame, the exclusive online bowling channel for the Professional Bowlers Association.
About the PWBA
The Professional Women’s Bowling Association (PWBA) originally was formed in 1960. The PWBA Tour has events throughout the country, offering high-level competition and top prize money for women bowlers. The PWBA is supported by the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America (BPAA) and the United States Bowling Congress (USBC)
PEPSI PWBA LINCOLN OPEN
At Sun Valley Lanes, Lincoln, Nebraska
Saturday’s results
MATCH PLAY- GROUP A
1, Thashaina Seraus (a), Aruba, 4-2-0, 4,979
2, Liz Johnson, Deerfield, Ill., 5-1-0, 4,966
3, Maria Jose Rodriguez, Colombia, 4-2-0, 4,918
4, Diana Zavjalova, Latvia, 3-3-0, 4,904
5, Danielle McEwan, Stony Point, N.Y., 1-5-0, 4,833
6, Shannon O’Keefe, O’Fallon, Ill., 1-5-0, 4,787
MATCH PLAY – GROUP B
1, Sin Li Jane, Malaysia, 5-1-0, 5,011
2, Rocio Restrepo, Louisville, Ohio, 3-3-0, 4,971
3, Kristina Szczerbinski, North Tonawanda, N.Y., 3-3-0, 4,921
4, Kelly Kulick, Union, N.J., 3-3-0, 4,879
5, Juliana Franco (a), Colombia, 1-5-0, 4,803
6, Katie Zwiefelhofer, Racine, Wis., 3-3-0, 4,753
Group A Stepladder
Semifinal – Zavjalova def. Rodriguez, 255-197 (Rodriguez finishes tied for seventh, earns $1,900).
Final – Johnson def. Zavjalova, 188-176 (Johnson earns No. 3 seed for stepladder based on average; Rodriguez finishes tied for fifth, earns $2,100).
Group B Stepladder
Semifinal – Kulick def. Szczerbinski, 210-176 (Szcerbinski finishes tied for seventh, earns $1,900).
Final – Kulick def. Restrepo, 203-187 (Kulick earns No. 4 seed for stepladder based on average; Restrepo finishes tied for fifth, earns $2,100).
TELEVISED STEPLADDER FINALS
(Will be taped June 25 and will air July 11 on CBS Sports Network)
Match No. 1: (4) Kulick vs. (3) Johnson
Match No. 2: (2) Seraus vs. Match No. 1 winner
Final: (1) Sin vs. Match No. 2 winner
CASHERS’ ROUND (18-game totals; top 12 advance)
1, Danielle McEwan, Stony Point, N.Y., 3,673. 2, Sin Li Jane, Malaysia, 3,667. 3, Shannon O’Keefe, O’Fallon, Ill., 3,666. 4, Rocio Restrepo, Louisville, Ohio, 3,661. 5, Diana Zavjalova, Latvia, 3,638. 6(tie), Kristina Szczerbinski, North Tonawanda, N.Y., and Liz Johnson, Deerfield, Ill., 3,626.
8, Kelly Kulick, Union, N.J., 3,615. 9, Thashaina Seraus (a), Aruba, 3,610. 10, Juliana Franco (a), Colombia, 3,606. 11, Maria Jose Rodriguez, Colombia, 3,600. 12, Katie Zwiefelhofer, Racine, Wis., 3,587.
DID NOT ADVANCE
13, Brandi Branka, Fairview Heights, Ill., 3,584, $1,200. 14, Laura Plazas (a), Bel Aire, Kan., 3,575, $1,200. 15, Shannon Pluhowsky, Dayton, Ohio, 3,573, $1,200. 16, Siti Rahman, Malaysia, 3,563, $1,200. 17, Victoria Johansson (a), Sweden, 3,556, $1,200. 18, Clara Guerrero, Colombia, 3,554, $1,200
19, Jodi Gawlik, Schaumburg, Ill., 3,550, $1,200. 20(tie), Verity Crawley, England, and Jasmine Snell (a), Papillion, Neb., 3,545, $1,200. 22, Sandra Gongora, Mexico, 3,525, $1,200. 23, Sandra Andersson, Sweden, 3,515, $1,200. 24, Jen Higgins, Westerville, Ohio, 3,503, $1,200.
25, Syaidatul Hamidi, Malaysia, 3,481, $1,200. 26, Katie Ann Sopp, White Bear Lake, Minn., 3,469, $1,200. 27, Nicole Bower (a), Camp Hill, Pa., 3,466, $1,200. 28, Josie Earnest-Barnes, Nashville, Tenn., 3,452, $1,200. 29, Missy Parkin, Laguna Hills, Calif., 3,448, $1,200. 30, Julia Bond (a), Aurora, Ill., 3,439, $1,200.
31, April Ellis, Jackson, Tenn., 3,417, $1,200. 32, Ingellimar Beasley, Clarksville, Tenn., 3,368, $1,200.
Friday’s results
QUALIFYING (12-game totals; top 32 advance)
1, Kelly Kulick, Union, N.J., 2,478. 2, Maria Jose Rodriguez, Colombia, 2,468. 3, Juliana Franco (a), Colombia, 2,463. 4, Danielle McEwan, Stony Point, N.Y., 2,461. 5, Sin Li Jane, Malaysia, 2,459. 6, Rocio Restrepo, Louisville, Ohio, 2,454.
7, Victoria Johansson (a), Sweden, 2,441. 8, Jodi Gawlik, Schaumburg, Ill., 2,437. 9, Clara Guerrero, Colombia, 2,435. 10, Katie Zwiefelhofer, Racine, Wis., 2,422. 11, Laura Plazas (a), Bel Aire, Kan., 2,419. 12, Diana Zavjalova, Latvia, 2,418.
13, Shannon Pluhowsky, Dayton, Ohio, 2,410. 14, Jasmine Snell (a), Papillion, Neb., 2,404. 15, Siti Rahman, Malaysia, 2,403. 16(tie), Verity Crawley, England, and Liz Johnson, Deerfield, Ill., 2,397. 18, Sandra Andersson, Sweden, 2,386.
19, Katie Ann Sopp, White Bear Lake, Minn., 2,382. 20, Nicole Bower (a), Camp Hill, Pa., 2,376. 21, Thashaina Seraus (a), Aruba, 2,360. 22, Julia Bond (a), Aurora, Ill., 2,355. 23, Shannon O’Keefe, O’Fallon, Ill., 2,353. 24(tie), Sandra Gongora, Mexico, and Josie Earnest-Barnes, Nashville, Tenn., 2,347.
26, Kristina Szczerbinski, North Tonawanda, N.Y., 2,340. 27, Brandi Branka, Fairview Heights, Ill., 2,338. 28, Jen Higgins, Westerville, Ohio, 2,333. 29, Missy Parkin, Laguna Hills, Calif., 2,309. 30, April Ellis, Jackson, Tenn., 2,293.
31, Syaidatul Hamidi, Malaysia, 2,291. 32, Ingellimar Beasley, Clarksville, Tenn., 2,286.
DID NOT ADVANCE
33, Erin McCarthy, Omaha, Neb., 2,277. 34, Esther Cheah, Malaysia, 2,275. 35, Kristina Rosberg, Ord, Neb., 2,267. 36(tie), Stephanie Martins, Brazil, and Ashly Galante, Palm Harbor, Fla., 2,264.
38, Nina Flack, Sweden, 2,263. 39(tie), Amanda Greene, Romney, W.Va., Liz Kuhlkin, Schenectady, N.Y., and Sabrena Divis, Gillette, Wyo., 2,262. 42, Shalin Zulkifli, Malaysia, 2,258.
43, Cassandra Leuthold, Lincoln, Neb., 2,255. 44, Ashley Rucker, Bartlesville, Okla., 2,249. 45, Allie Ijams, Wichita, Kan., 2,241. 46, Tannya Roumimper, Indonesia, 2,237. 47(tie), Johanna Puentes (a), Colombia, and Elise Bolton, Merritt Island, Fla., 2,233.
49, Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, Keller, Texas, 2,228. 50, Robyn Renslow, Brentwood, Calif., 2,220. 51, Nachimi Itakura, Japan, 2,210. 52, Samantha Kelly, Waukesha, Wis., 2,207. 53, Isabella Correa (a), Austin, Texas, 2,197. 54, Leanne Hulsenberg, Pleasant View, Utah, 2,189.
55, Summer Jasmin, Beckley, W.Va., 2,187. 56, Giselle Poss, Montgomery, Ill., 2,184. 57, Natasha Roslan, Malaysia, 2,177. 58, Olivia Sandham (a), St. Joseph, Mo., 2,176. 59, Amanda Fry, Antelope, Calif., 2,166. 60, Megan Szczepanski (a), Lockport, Ill., 2,163.
61, Anggie Ramirez Perea, Austin, Texas, 2,148. 62(tie), Jodi Woessner, Oregon, Ohio, and Mariana Ayala, Euless, Texas, 2,147. 64, Megan Kelly, Dayton, Ohio, 2,143. 65, Mayumi Naitoh, Japan, 2,139. 66(tie), Daria Pajak, Poland, and Jerracah Heibel, Indianapolis, 2,138.
68, Daria Kovalova, Ukraine, 2,135. 69, Debbie Ayers, La Mesa, Calif., 2,124. 70, Chika Terashita, Japan, 2,111. 71, Brooke Bower, Camp Hill, Pa., 2,091. 72, Kayla Pashina, Minnetonka, Minn., 2,073.
73, Kaidee Sutphin, Mount Dora, Fla., 2,063. 74, Anne Marie Duggan, Edmond, Okla., 2,052. 75, Jessica Quebedeaux, Lafayette, La., 2,014. 76, Andrea Staples (a), Tea, S.D., 2,006. 77, Montana Meyer (a), Imperial, Mo., 1,969. 78, Nichole DePaul-Miller, Baytown, Texas, 1,889.
