GREEN BAY, Wis. – Shannon Pluhowsky of Dayton, Ohio, already has one United States Bowling Congress Queens title under belt and her quest to add another tiara to her collection continued Saturday afternoon at The Ashwaubenon Bowling Alley in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
In her final qualifying block, Pluhowsky had games of 268, 269, 197, 269 and 207 for a five-game total of 1,210 and an overall total of 3,545. That overall total places her third in the tournament’s history for 15-game qualifying totals, behind only Carolyn Dorin-Ballard during the 2010 event (3,636 total) and Germany’s Birgit Pöppler, now Birgit Noreiks, in 2016 (3,601).
Jillian Martin of Stow, Ohio, is second with a tournament total of 3,456, Liz Kuhlkin of Schenectady, New York, third at 3,301, with Latvia’s Diana Zavjalova at 3,293 and Colombia’s Juliana Franco at 3,284 rounding out the top five.
Singapore’s New Hui Fen placed sixth (3,278), Noreiks and Josie Barnes of Hermitage, Tennessee, tied for seventh (3,261), Sweden’s Anna Andersson is ninth (3,244) and Kelly Kulick of Union, New Jersey is 10th (3,223)
Defending champion Lindsay Boomershine of Brigham City, Utah was guaranteed to finish no worse than 64th place heading into match, and improved her seeding through qualifying in a tie for 31st. The final spot for match play belongs to Bailey Delrose of Crest Hill, Illinois, and will face Pluhowsky in the first round.
Pluhowsky is not only chasing her second Queens title, but also her second Professional Women’s Bowling Association Tour title of the 2024 season. She won the PWBA GoBowling! Twin Cities Open in Eagan, Minnesota, on May 4.
Going into match play, Pluhowsky won’t change how she approaches the game, saying that it’s really her versus the lane, not who she is facing.
“The goal is to get the pins to fall down, if they fall down more than my opponent then we’ll be good. I think I have a really good look and idea of what the pattern’s going to do,” said Pluhowsky.
With a sizable lead over the rest of the field during the round, Pluhowsky used the opportunity to test out different bowling balls to get a look at them on the 40-foot pattern, and cracked a joke about switching out so many balls on her way to the third-highest qualifying total in tournament history.
“I didn’t know I was close, if I knew maybe I wouldn’t have switched out so many times,” she said with a chuckle. “Obviously off to a good start, I’ve found a way to knock them over so let’s hope they continue to fall.”
Pluhowsky and the rest of the top 64 will return for double-elimination match play beginning Sunday at 10 a.m. Eastern with the left side of the bracket before a re-oil for the right side of the bracket at 12:30 p.m. Eastern. All winners will return at 2:30 p.m. Eastern to bowl their next round of matches on the burn before a re-oil for two straight rounds of matches in the Elimination Bracket at 5 p.m. Eastern to conclude Sunday.
The final two remaining in the Winner’s Bracket will bowl each other for the No.1 seed for Tuesday’s live TV finals show, while the final four in the Elimination Bracket will bowl for the last three spots on the show.
The stepladder finals will begin Tuesday at 7 p.m. Eastern on CBS Sports Network, where the winner will receive the coveted tiara and top prize of $60,000. All competition leading up to the televised finals will be streamed live only on BowlTV.
