England's Crawley eyes first title at PWBA Fountain Valley Open
June 19, 2017
ARLINGTON, Texas - England's Verity Crawley hasn't had the chance to bowl in too many Professional Women's Bowling Association events, but when she does, she makes sure her presence is known.
Her 2017 PWBA Tour debut at the PWBA Fountain Valley Open in Fountain Valley, California, was no different, as the 22-year-old right-hander improved during each round at Fountain Bowl and climbed her way to the No. 2 seed for the event's televised finals, which will air on CBS Sports Network on Tuesday at 8 p.m. Eastern.
She will be joined on the show by top seed Kelly Kulick of Union, New Jersey, No. 3 seed United States Bowling Congress Hall of Famer Liz Johnson of Cheektowaga, New York, and No. 4 Cherie Tan of Singapore, the only left-hander to advance out of qualifying.
"I bowled a few events last year and had some success, so I really wanted to come out and bowl more this year," said Crawley, a 2016 graduate of Webber International, which she helped to the women's title at the 2016 Intercollegiate Team Championships. "This all is very surreal. As the matches were going on, I didn't know the scores and tried not to watch my opponents. I really just tried to stay present in the moment and in my own game. Obviously, you come out here to win, so to be in this position is unbelievable."
Crawley, who will meet the winner of the Johnson-Tan opening match, missed the first two events of the season due to obligations at her job as a paralegal at an immigration law firm in Florida, and it took until her fourth game at the Fountain Valley Open to record her first 200 game of the season.
She rallied during the second block of qualifying May 12 to surge from 41st place into 12th place on the strength of the round's third-highest total, and she moved into the top 10 during the cashers' round May 13.
The top 12 players were split into two groups for match play, and a 5-0-1 record lifted Crawley to the top of the Group B standings, which was enough to secure an automatic spot on the TV show, but not enough to catch a motivated Kulick, who still is searching for her first win since the return of the PWBA Tour in 2015.
Kulick topped the Group A standings in Fountain Valley and earned the No. 1 seed based on her 24-game pinfall, including bonus pins from match play.
Competition at the Fountain Valley Open included two six-game qualifying blocks to determine the 32 players for the cashers' round, where another six-game block narrowed the field to the top 12 players for round-robin match play based on their 18-game totals.
While Crawley's job delayed her arrival on the PWBA Tour this year, it has not stopped her from practicing, which she does at the world-class Kegel Training Center in Lake Wales, Florida, alongside members of the Webber bowling team or Kegel staff member John Janawicz, a longtime Team USA member.
Florida also has a lot of challenging tournaments to compete in, and although Crawley hasn't performed as well as she's wanted to lately, any shortcomings she's experienced have shown her what she needs to work on.
"I've been bowling as much as I can, mostly in the evenings, but I've really been struggling at events at home in Florida," said Crawley, who was a semifinalist at the 2015 Intercollegiate Singles Championships, which earned her some time under the CBS Sports Network television lights. "I've been working a lot on my game lately, and I'm happy to see it paying off."
Now that she has gained some momentum, Crawley plans to focus more on practice and bowling the rest of the 2017 PWBA Tour season, while also continuing to work part-time at the law firm.
Her best finish in five PWBA Tour events last season was a 10th-place effort at the PWBA Greater Detroit Open. In 2015, she rolled a perfect game on the way to earning the No. 1 seed for the double-elimination match-play bracket at the 2015 USBC Queens, before losing consecutive matches and being eliminated.
The 2017 PWBA Fountain Valley Open was the third of 14 events on the 2017 PWBA Tour schedule and featured 83 competitors from 11 countries. It marked the PWBA's first visit to Fountain Bowl since the venue hosted the U.S. Women's Open in 1991 and 1992.
CBS Sports Network is televising the stepladder finals of 13 of the 14 PWBA Tour events, and the USBC Queens kicked off the coverage May 23.
Qualifying and match-play rounds of PWBA Tour events are broadcast on Xtra Frame, the exclusive online bowling channel for the Professional Bowlers Association.
Her 2017 PWBA Tour debut at the PWBA Fountain Valley Open in Fountain Valley, California, was no different, as the 22-year-old right-hander improved during each round at Fountain Bowl and climbed her way to the No. 2 seed for the event's televised finals, which will air on CBS Sports Network on Tuesday at 8 p.m. Eastern.
She will be joined on the show by top seed Kelly Kulick of Union, New Jersey, No. 3 seed United States Bowling Congress Hall of Famer Liz Johnson of Cheektowaga, New York, and No. 4 Cherie Tan of Singapore, the only left-hander to advance out of qualifying.
"I bowled a few events last year and had some success, so I really wanted to come out and bowl more this year," said Crawley, a 2016 graduate of Webber International, which she helped to the women's title at the 2016 Intercollegiate Team Championships. "This all is very surreal. As the matches were going on, I didn't know the scores and tried not to watch my opponents. I really just tried to stay present in the moment and in my own game. Obviously, you come out here to win, so to be in this position is unbelievable."
Crawley, who will meet the winner of the Johnson-Tan opening match, missed the first two events of the season due to obligations at her job as a paralegal at an immigration law firm in Florida, and it took until her fourth game at the Fountain Valley Open to record her first 200 game of the season.
She rallied during the second block of qualifying May 12 to surge from 41st place into 12th place on the strength of the round's third-highest total, and she moved into the top 10 during the cashers' round May 13.
The top 12 players were split into two groups for match play, and a 5-0-1 record lifted Crawley to the top of the Group B standings, which was enough to secure an automatic spot on the TV show, but not enough to catch a motivated Kulick, who still is searching for her first win since the return of the PWBA Tour in 2015.
Kulick topped the Group A standings in Fountain Valley and earned the No. 1 seed based on her 24-game pinfall, including bonus pins from match play.
Competition at the Fountain Valley Open included two six-game qualifying blocks to determine the 32 players for the cashers' round, where another six-game block narrowed the field to the top 12 players for round-robin match play based on their 18-game totals.
While Crawley's job delayed her arrival on the PWBA Tour this year, it has not stopped her from practicing, which she does at the world-class Kegel Training Center in Lake Wales, Florida, alongside members of the Webber bowling team or Kegel staff member John Janawicz, a longtime Team USA member.
Florida also has a lot of challenging tournaments to compete in, and although Crawley hasn't performed as well as she's wanted to lately, any shortcomings she's experienced have shown her what she needs to work on.
"I've been bowling as much as I can, mostly in the evenings, but I've really been struggling at events at home in Florida," said Crawley, who was a semifinalist at the 2015 Intercollegiate Singles Championships, which earned her some time under the CBS Sports Network television lights. "I've been working a lot on my game lately, and I'm happy to see it paying off."
Now that she has gained some momentum, Crawley plans to focus more on practice and bowling the rest of the 2017 PWBA Tour season, while also continuing to work part-time at the law firm.
Her best finish in five PWBA Tour events last season was a 10th-place effort at the PWBA Greater Detroit Open. In 2015, she rolled a perfect game on the way to earning the No. 1 seed for the double-elimination match-play bracket at the 2015 USBC Queens, before losing consecutive matches and being eliminated.
The 2017 PWBA Fountain Valley Open was the third of 14 events on the 2017 PWBA Tour schedule and featured 83 competitors from 11 countries. It marked the PWBA's first visit to Fountain Bowl since the venue hosted the U.S. Women's Open in 1991 and 1992.
CBS Sports Network is televising the stepladder finals of 13 of the 14 PWBA Tour events, and the USBC Queens kicked off the coverage May 23.
Qualifying and match-play rounds of PWBA Tour events are broadcast on Xtra Frame, the exclusive online bowling channel for the Professional Bowlers Association.