PWBA's top players set for Tour Championship

ARLINGTON, Texas - The Professional Women's Bowling Association Tour season will come to an end this week when 16 of the tour's top players compete in The Smithfield PWBA Tour Championship promoted by GoBowling.com.

PWBA Tour points leader and three-time champion this season Liz Johnson of Cheektowaga, New York, and Stefanie Johnson of Grand Prairie, Texas, are automatically seeded into the live finals on Sunday at 1 p.m. Eastern on CBS Sports Network. The event begins Friday with the first three rounds of match play at the International Training and Research Center.

As the top two players in the PWBA Tour points, Johnson and Johnson earned the right to bypass the first three rounds of the bracket and are seeded straight into the semifinals. The event will also finalize which of them will earn PWBA Player of the Year honors.

The remainder of the field, made up of PWBA Tour champions this season and filled out by the points list, will compete in best-of-five matches throughout the day Friday to determine who will join them in the semifinals.

The opening round of match play will feature Elysia Current vs. Danielle McEwan, Shannon O'Keefe vs. Missy Parkin, Kristina Wendell vs. Liz Kuhlkin, Erin McCarthy vs. Clara Guerrero, Rocio Restrepo vs. Bryanna Caldwell and Shannon Pluhowsky vs. Amanda Greene.

Kelly Kulick and Diana Zavjalova, who are currently ranked third and fourth on the points list, earned a one-round bye and will join the bracket in Round 2.

Friday's best-of-five matches will take place two at a time with every match broadcast live on Xtra Frame. For subscription information, visit XtraFrame.TV.

For more information on the PWBA, visit PWBA.com.