Standings - Men | Women

LAS VEGAS - After four days and 32 games, only 16 players remain in contention at the 2018 QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup.

Eight men and eight women have advanced to the round-robin match-play portion of the prestigious event, and they'll be back on the lanes at the Sam's Town Bowling Center on Saturday at noon Eastern.

Team USA's Kyle Troup maintained his lead over the men's field for the fourth consecutive day, while Indonesia's Nadia Nuramalina quietly completed her ascent up the women's standings, finally landing at the top of the list after the week's 31st game.

Troup, who averaged nearly 235 through the four qualifying rounds, finished the 32 games with a 7,519 pinfall total and enters the next stage with a 208-pin lead over 2006 QubicaAMF World Cup champion Osku Palermaa of Finland (7,311) and 478 pins ahead of fifth place Jojoe Yannaphon of Thailand (7,041).

Canada's Ryan Reid, owner of the first of three perfect games this week at Sam's Town, is third with 7,175, and Australia's Sam Cooley is fourth with 7,161.

Pinfall will carry over into Saturday's match-play round, where competitors will bowl eight head-to-head games. Total pinfall for 40 games, including 30 bonus pins for each win in match play, will determine the four players who will advance to the knockout-style semifinals Saturday afternoon.

In the semifinals, scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. Eastern, the No. 1 seed will face the No. 4 qualifier, and No. 2 and No. 3 will meet. The winners of each match will earn a spot in the championship game.

"I feel very confident," said Troup, who is competing in his first event as a member of Team USA. "Day to day, I'm seeing the lanes very well, and not too differently, at that. I got matched up early and have been able to use the same two bowling balls all week. I've also used the same game plan, which has been to start in and chase it left."

Multiple times during the third and fourth rounds, Palermaa gained momentum and made up ground on Troup, but Troup managed to pull away once again.

In Friday's final game, Troup piled on the strikes on the way to a 233 finish, while Palermaa struggled and closed with 177.

"It was nice to be able to end the day with a big game and pick up some more pins on second place," said Troup, who rolled the week's second perfect game, the 75th in tournament history, during Wednesday's third round. "Going into tomorrow, I want to stay focused mentally and take it one shot and one game at a time."

On the women's side, Nuramalina set the pace with a 6,719 total, a 209.97 average. She finished just ahead of Malaysia's Sin Li Jane, who held the top spot after the second and third rounds and finished Friday's round with 6,714.

Colombia's Maria Jose Rodriguez used a 1,841 performance during Friday's eight games to surge from 11th place into third place with 6,650, and she was followed by Venezuela's Karen Marcano (6,637) and Nadine Geissler of Germany (6,634).

Nuramalina is looking to bring Indonesia its first World Cup. To do so, she'll need to outlast a talented group that includes six standouts on the Professional Women's Bowling Association Tour, somewhere she hopes to make a name for herself in the near future.

While the 23-year-old right-hander does look up to the PWBA cast, it's the magnitude of the event that has had the biggest effect on her.

"I have felt some nerves, especially as the field has gotten smaller," Nuramalina said. "I know I'll be nervous for a bit tomorrow, but I think I can handle it, and I hope I'll be able to hold my position. It would mean everything to win the World Cup because no one from Indonesia has ever won."

Nuramalina has tested her skills in a couple of PWBA Tour events and plans to have more of a presence in 2019.

While there, she'd run into reigning PWBA Player of the Year Shannon O'Keefe, who also is among the eight remaining players at the 2018 World Cup.

O'Keefe has had a frustrating week at Sam's Town, however, and she knows that even though she has advanced to the next step of the event, one she has coveted during her 14 years on Team USA, she's going to need a more effective game plan.

Whether it means tweaking something physical or watching video of the players who are scoring well, O'Keefe intends to spend part of Friday night analyzing what happened over the week's 32 games.

"If I want to give myself a chance to win this tournament, I'm going to have to figure something out, and figure it out quick, because I'm not going to get it done throwing it the way I have the last four days," said O'Keefe, who will enter match play in seventh place, but only 44 pins out of the top four. "I'm going to go back and watch some livestream and watch the girls who are bowling well. Clearly, I'm not seeing something. Whether I'm not seeing the shape, or I'm not using right equipment, I don't know what's going on. I've got to figure it out."

All players this week bowled 24 qualifying games over three days (eight games each day), before the field was cut to the top 24 men and top 24 women, based on their 24-game pinfall totals. The advancing players bowled eight additional games Friday, before their 32-game total determined the eight bowlers for match play.

All rounds of competition this week are being broadcast live on BowlTV.

This year's tournament marked a return to the 56-lane Sam's Town Bowling Center, where it was held in 2015, and included representatives from 83 countries - 81 men and 68 women. Each country is permitted to send one man and one woman.

The World Cup first was contested in 1965, and the tournament now is considered one of the sport's most prestigious singles titles.

For more information, or to follow the scores from the QubicaAMF World Cup, visit QubicaAMF.com.