ALLEN, Texas – The first regional event of the 2023 Professional Women’s Bowling Association season will feature a sold-out field and strong collection of players with recent PWBA Regional success as 60 athletes make their way to JB’s Allen Bowl for the PWBA Greater Dallas Regional.
The event will start Saturday at 11 a.m. Eastern with an eight-game qualifying block to determine the top four players for the stepladder finals. The stepladder will begin Saturday at 5 p.m. Eastern, and the champion will take home a $1,700 top prize and earn their spot at the season-ending PWBA Regional Showdown in December.
Select pairs during qualifying and the stepladder finals will be broadcast live at BowlTV.com.
The 2023 season is scheduled to feature a full docket of regional action for the first time since 2019 with nine events taking place across the country leading up to the Regional Showdown.
Each regional champion will automatically be seeded for match play at the Regional Showdown, giving athletes like Elise Bolton of Merritt Island, Florida, and Jacqueline Evans of Acton, Massachusetts, added motivation to start the season strong as they each look for a second PWBA Regional victory.
Bolton kicked off the 2019 regional season with a win at the PWBA Greater Cleveland Regional, which helped her earn a spot at the 2019 edition of the Regional Showdown.
The 29-year-old right-hander has regularly put herself in position to win on the regional circuit since her victory in 2019, recording a runner-up finish at the 2022 PWBA Rockford Regional and fourth-place finishes at the 2020 PWBA Sarasota Regional and 2021 PWBA Arlington Regional.
Evans captured her PWBA Regional title at the 2021 Arlington Regional by winning all three of her matches during the stepladder at the International Training and Research Center.
It marked the second championship-round appearance in regional competition for Evans, who placed third at the 2019 PWBA Lincoln Regional.
Saturday’s field also will feature several players who have advanced to stepladder finals since 2019, including Kayla Bandy of Wichita, Kansas; Sydney Brummett of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Maria Bulanova of Russia; and Fania Cobo of Puerto Rico.
A pair of youth standouts who found the national spotlight in 2022 – San Diego’s Avery Domaguin and Bella Castillo of Odessa, Texas – also will be competing Saturday at the Greater Dallas Regional.
Avery earned the top seed for the stepladder finals and collected the U15 title at the 2022 Junior Gold Championships in Grand Rapids, Michigan, while Bella bowled on FOX and took home the win during the Celebrity Super Clash at the Jimmie Allen PBA Challenge.
The next PWBA Regional event on the 2023 schedule will be March 25 at the PWBA Greater Detroit Regional in Allen Park, Michigan. Events will take place throughout the year, and the final event before the Regional Showdown is scheduled for Nov. 11 in Greeley, Colorado (PWBA Northern Colorado Regional).
The Regional Showdown will feature 16 players in 2023. In addition to the players that win during the year, the rest of the field for match play will be determined based on the results of an eight-game qualifying round that will be open to all PWBA Regional-eligible bowlers.
The 16 athletes will compete in round-robin match play before the field is cut to the final four bowlers for the stepladder finals.
More details on the location and date of the Regional Showdown will be available at a later time.
