ARLINGTON, Texas – Julia Bond has plenty of delightful memories from her days as a member of the University of Nebraska women’s bowling team and hopes the friendly confines of Sun Valley Lanes helps her professional career get off to a great start when she competes at the 2019 Professional Women’s Bowling Association (PWBA) Lincoln Open.
The PWBA Tour returns to Sun Valley Lanes this week after a one-year hiatus. The center played host to a PWBA event for three consecutive years (2015-2017).
Competition at the PWBA Lincoln Open starts Friday with two eight-game qualifying blocks before the field is cut to 32 players. After eight additional games Saturday morning, the top 12 players will bowl a final six-game block to decide the four players who will compete in the stepladder finals.
BowlTV.com, the exclusive livestreaming home of the PWBA Tour, will have wire-to-wire live coverage of the event, including Saturday’s stepladder finals at 6:30 p.m. (Eastern).
To say Bond is familiar with Sun Valley Lanes would be an understatement.
The bowling center is home to the Big Red Invitational, which Bond helped Nebraska win twice in her four seasons, and she took home the individual title in 2018. She also was a member of the Junior Team USA girls team that captured two silver medals and a bronze medal at the 2016 World Bowling Youth Championships held at Sun Valley Lanes.
“I'm absolutely thrilled to start my journey at Sun Valley (Lanes),” said Bond, who helped Nebraska win the 2015 NCAA Women’s Bowling Championship. “I've made a lot of new friends in the past year and I'm excited to share this moment with them.
“My goal for this week is to remain confident and comfortable. I think being familiar with Sun Valley gives me a little bit of an advantage. Regardless of the outcome, I know I'll be surrounded by friends and family who will be proud of me. If I can remember that, I believe I can stay focused.”
Bond is from Aurora, Illinois, but Lincoln has become her home away from home. As an only child, the life of a student-athlete kept Bond away from her family, but she developed a new family with her Nebraska teammates and “lived and breathed” the lifestyle of a student-athlete.
She believes being a Nebraska athlete “strengthened her resolve to be the best bowler she could be while following her dreams.”
Bond completed her athletic eligibility in 2018, but she had one more year to go before completing her undergraduate degree. The additional year in Lincoln took her away from the student-athlete life and she had to adjust to becoming a college student. She also worked part-time at Sun Valley Lanes, further strengthening her bond with the center and staff.
Last week, Bond graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Forensic Science with an emphasis in Forensic Biology and minors in Biochemistry and Biology.
“When my eligibility was done, and I had one more year to finish school, I suddenly found myself living the life of a normal college student,” said Bond, who is a three-time Team USA member and finished sixth as a non-member at the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open. “I quickly realized it wasn't for me.
“Through some wonderful people, I found myself at Sun Valley Lanes working part-time. That experience really changed my whole year. I met and worked with some of the most amazing people I'll ever know. I got to open up to people and share some awesome memories. If anything, Lincoln and Sun Valley Lanes showed me how much I love bowling and I don't think I could stay away even if I tried.”
Bond now finds herself in the PWBA Rookie of the Year award conversation, which includes a former teammate Gazmine Mason, and another former Husker, Canada’s Valerie (Calberry) Bercier.
Mason has begun her season by making the Round of 32 in both the Nationwide PWBA Greater Cleveland Open (28th) and PWBA Twin Cities Open (25th). Bercier just missed the stepladder finals in Cleveland, finishing seventh, and was 31st in the Twin Cities. Both players are in the field this week.
In all, there are 18 players with ties to the Nebraska bowling program, including 19-time Team USA member and the 2006 United States Bowling Congress (USBC) Queens champion Shannon Pluhowsky of Dayton, Ohio, who already has one top-5 finish in 2019. She’s joined by 2018 U.S. Women’s Open champion Liz Kuhlkin of Schenectady, New York, and 2012 USBC Queens champion Diandra Asbaty of Chicago.
Lindsay (Baker) Boomershine of Perry, Utah, a 2018 PWBA Tour Championship participant, and four-time Team USA member Amanda (Burgoyne) Vermilyea of Apple Valley, Minnesota, also will compete.
Other former Huskers and PWBA members competing include Elise Bolton of Merritt Island, Florida, Malaysia’s Esther Cheah, Kaleena Henning-Shannon of Omaha, Cassandra Leuthold of Lincoln, Erin McCarthy of Omaha, Kayla (Stram) Pashina of Minnetonka, Minnesota, Katie Ann Sopp-Schroeder of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, and Danielle van der Meer of Washington, Illinois.
There are two non-PWBA members with Husker ties in this week’s field: Kristina (Mickelson) Rosberg of Ord, Nebraska, and Jasmine (Laugerman) Snell of Papillion, Nebraska.
Returning to PWBA competition this week are four members of the Malaysian national team including Cheah, Sin Li Jane, Siti Rahman and Shalin Zulkifli. In 2017, Sin captured her first PWBA title at the Pepsi PWBA Lincoln Open, while Rahman won the PWBA Wichita Open. The group also will participate in the USBC Queens, where Sin had a fifth-place finish in 2016.
“It’s definitely a great feeling to be back in Lincoln,” Sin said. “I have one of the sweetest moments here. I’m really excited and looking forward to this year’s Lincoln Open.”
Missing in action this week will be members of Team Colombia, including Clara Guerrero, Rocio Restrepo and Maria José Rodriguez. They will help represent Colombia in the Central American and Caribbean Championships in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Sun Valley Lanes also will host a PWBA Regional on Sunday. The PWBA will have five regional events in conjunction with national events on the 2019 PWBA Tour schedule. The one-day tournaments will have eight games of qualifying before the field is cut to the top four competitors for a stepladder final.
The first four regional winners (who are PWBA members) will compete in the Go Bowling! PWBA Regional Showdown, a special made-for-TV event that will air Aug. 24 on CBS Sports Network. Former Husker Elise Bolton of Merritt Island, Florida, earned a berth in the event by winning the first regional of the season at Yorktown Lanes in Parma Heights, Ohio.
BowlTV.com will have live coverage of this season’s PWBA Tour events, including the stepladder finals of the first six standard events including the PWBA Lincoln Open. The platform also offers access to behind-the-scenes content, classic PWBA telecasts, blogs, podcasts and instructional content. Visit BowlTV.com for more information.
CBS Sports Network will televise the stepladder finals of seven events on the 2019 PWBA Tour schedule, including all four majors, and will feature three prime-time shows in August. CBS Sports Network’s coverage of the PWBA starts May 21 with the USBC Queens, the first major event of the season.
Visit PWBA.com to learn more information and for complete coverage of the 2019 PWBA Tour season.
