Top five determined for stepladder finals at 2025 USBC Queens
May 20, 2025
Final Bracket Results
LAS VEGAS – Only five bowlers remain at the 2025 United States Bowling Congress Queens inside Suncoast Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas after the final rounds of double-elimination match play on Monday.
The top seed is 2021 U.S. Women’s Open champion Josie Barnes of Hermitage, Tennessee, going 6-0 in the match-play bracket to earn the No. 1 seed for Tuesday’s TV finals. Barnes defeated Malaysia’s Nur Hazirah Ramli for the top seed and will only need one win to claim her second major title and first Queens title. Ramli, in her first professional event, will await her opponent as the No. 2 seed.
“This tournament has always meant a lot to me,” said Barnes, the head bowling coach at Vanderbilt University. “I love the idea of (head-to-head) match play and I always preach to my Vandy kids to never look too far ahead of yourself. My ball reps would ask me who my next opponent was, and I never knew because I wasn’t worried about that.”
Staying in the moment paid off for the major champion, who was also the No. 1 seed during that U.S. Women’s Open show. Barnes had series’ of 697, 683, 712, 620, 632 and 699 during her journey to the top seed for the Queens telecast.
“In a lot of ways, people tell you experience is invaluable, but I’m going to be nervous tomorrow,” Barnes said with a chuckle. “The U.S. Women’s Open was always something I dreamed about, but everyone wants a tiara. I’m just going to enjoy the moment.”
Ramli, the latest member of the adult team on Team Malaysia, will have to bowl an extra game and will lean on her experience in international competition to succeed. The Malaysian bowler has a number of accolades, such as at the 2024 Malaysian International Open where she won in the Youth Girl’s Open Masters division. She also won five total medals at the 2024 Malaysia Games, including four gold medals (women’s singles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles and women’s trios).
Joining Barnes and Ramli in the stepladder finals as the No. 3 seed will be 2024 Professional Women’s Bowling Association Player of the Year Sin Li Jane of Malaysia, finishing with 735 in the final Elimination Bracket match. Sin was knocked down to the Elimination Bracket by Bryanna Coté of Tucson, Arizona, and fought her way to the telecast that included a match against Alexis Runk of Milton, Pennsylvania, come down to the last shot. Sin needed to strike out to advance, which she did to win by one pin, 656-655, and will be seeking her third career major, first Queens title and the Triple Crown (Queens, U.S. Women’s Open and PWBA Tour Championship).
Starting the stepladder finals will be Valerie Bercier of Muskegon, Michigan, and Clara Guerrero of Colombia as the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds after shooting 685 and 679 in the final bracket match, respectively. Bercier was the 2019 PWBA Rookie of the Year but is seeking her first title after bowling 27 match play games, while Guerrero has a major title to her name (2016 PWBA Players Championship) and looks to add the tiara for her second major title.
Elysia Current of Middleton, Delaware, the winner of the first event on the relaunched PWBA Tour back in 2015, was making her own run to the tiara, but finished with the lowest total (641) in the final match to bow out in sixth place.
The stepladder finals will be contested on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Eastern on CBS Sports Network, with the champion taking home a spot in the tournament’s storied history, a major title on the PWBA Tour and the tiara to go along with the $60,000 top prize. All competition leading up to the televised finals was streamed live only on BowlTV.
LAS VEGAS – Only five bowlers remain at the 2025 United States Bowling Congress Queens inside Suncoast Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas after the final rounds of double-elimination match play on Monday.
The top seed is 2021 U.S. Women’s Open champion Josie Barnes of Hermitage, Tennessee, going 6-0 in the match-play bracket to earn the No. 1 seed for Tuesday’s TV finals. Barnes defeated Malaysia’s Nur Hazirah Ramli for the top seed and will only need one win to claim her second major title and first Queens title. Ramli, in her first professional event, will await her opponent as the No. 2 seed.
“This tournament has always meant a lot to me,” said Barnes, the head bowling coach at Vanderbilt University. “I love the idea of (head-to-head) match play and I always preach to my Vandy kids to never look too far ahead of yourself. My ball reps would ask me who my next opponent was, and I never knew because I wasn’t worried about that.”
Staying in the moment paid off for the major champion, who was also the No. 1 seed during that U.S. Women’s Open show. Barnes had series’ of 697, 683, 712, 620, 632 and 699 during her journey to the top seed for the Queens telecast.
“In a lot of ways, people tell you experience is invaluable, but I’m going to be nervous tomorrow,” Barnes said with a chuckle. “The U.S. Women’s Open was always something I dreamed about, but everyone wants a tiara. I’m just going to enjoy the moment.”
Ramli, the latest member of the adult team on Team Malaysia, will have to bowl an extra game and will lean on her experience in international competition to succeed. The Malaysian bowler has a number of accolades, such as at the 2024 Malaysian International Open where she won in the Youth Girl’s Open Masters division. She also won five total medals at the 2024 Malaysia Games, including four gold medals (women’s singles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles and women’s trios).
Joining Barnes and Ramli in the stepladder finals as the No. 3 seed will be 2024 Professional Women’s Bowling Association Player of the Year Sin Li Jane of Malaysia, finishing with 735 in the final Elimination Bracket match. Sin was knocked down to the Elimination Bracket by Bryanna Coté of Tucson, Arizona, and fought her way to the telecast that included a match against Alexis Runk of Milton, Pennsylvania, come down to the last shot. Sin needed to strike out to advance, which she did to win by one pin, 656-655, and will be seeking her third career major, first Queens title and the Triple Crown (Queens, U.S. Women’s Open and PWBA Tour Championship).
Starting the stepladder finals will be Valerie Bercier of Muskegon, Michigan, and Clara Guerrero of Colombia as the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds after shooting 685 and 679 in the final bracket match, respectively. Bercier was the 2019 PWBA Rookie of the Year but is seeking her first title after bowling 27 match play games, while Guerrero has a major title to her name (2016 PWBA Players Championship) and looks to add the tiara for her second major title.
Elysia Current of Middleton, Delaware, the winner of the first event on the relaunched PWBA Tour back in 2015, was making her own run to the tiara, but finished with the lowest total (641) in the final match to bow out in sixth place.
The stepladder finals will be contested on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Eastern on CBS Sports Network, with the champion taking home a spot in the tournament’s storied history, a major title on the PWBA Tour and the tiara to go along with the $60,000 top prize. All competition leading up to the televised finals was streamed live only on BowlTV.