Junior Team USA girls third after opening round at WYC

RESULTS: Team

HELSINKI, Finland -
The Junior Team USA girls sit in third place after the opening round of qualifying in team event at the 2010 World Tenpin Bowling Association World Youth Championships.

The United States shot 2,460, an average of 205, for three games Thursday and trails Malaysia by eight pins and Singapore by five pins. Qualifying concludes Friday with three additional games before the field will be cut to the top four teams for the semifinals.

Jenn Boisselle led the Americans with a 681 series and was followed by Brittni Hamilton (649), Christine Bator (624) and Kristie Petravich (506). The Junior Team USA boys will compete later today.

"I think today worked out really well, and we like the spot we are sitting in," said Boisselle, who had games of 256, 247 and 178. "All you have to do is be in the top four, and we are a strong enough team to compete in match play. We just have to attack it the same way tomorrow that we did today."

In all-events, Korea's Moon-Jeong Kim leads with 3,292, an average of 219.5, while Latvia's Diana Zavjalova is second with 3,274. Hamilton sits in eight place with 3,131, while Boisselle is ninth at 3,130.

The top 16 players after 18 games advance to Masters match play based on their all-events totals, and Bator is currently in 16th position with 3,097. Petravich is 20th with 3,054.

The United States Bowling Congress is working in cooperation with the Finnish Bowling Federation to provide live video streaming of the semifinals and finals of each event. Coverage will be available on BOWL.com, and the team event coverage is scheduled to begin at 2 a.m. Eastern on Saturday.

A field of 46 countries are competing in the World Youth Championships for medals in five events - singles, doubles, team, all-events and Masters match-play.

2010 WTBA WORLD YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS
At Tali Bowl, Helsinki, Finland
Wednesday's Results

GIRLS TEAM

QUALIFYING
(Top 10, three of six games)


1, Malaysia, 2,468. 2, Singapore, 2,465. 3, United States, 2,460. 4, Korea, 2,448. 5, Netherlands, 2,388. 6, Latvia, 2,385. 7, Finland, 2,384. 8, Colombia, 2,380. 9, England, 2,353. 10, Australia, 2,344.

GIRLS ALL-EVENTS
(Top 10 after 15 of 18 games)

1, Moon-Jeong Kim, Korea, 3,292. 2, Diana Zavjalova, Latvia, 3,274. 3, Hayley White, England, 3,235. 4, Yeon-Ju Kim, Korea, 3,209. 5, Jazreel Tan, Singapore, 3,182. 6, Carmen Haandrikman, Netherlands, 3,166. 7, Shayna Ng, Singapore, 3,166. 8, Brittni Hamilton, United States, 3,131. 9, Jenn Boisselle, United States, 3,130. 10, Laura Fonnegra, Colombia, 3,129.