Vanderbilt women's bowlers in NCAA championships today

The Lady Commie Heavy Ballers are slingin' it right now against Farleigh Dickinson in the NCAA women's bowling championships in Canton, Mich.

They landed the fourth seed out of eight teams yesterday after nine matches of bowling. The first four were team matches in which everybody bowls a full game, and the last five were in the Baker format, in which the team members divide up the frames and bowl four complete games together.

That's a lot of bowling. You can't say these women aren't athletes. Well, especially if you consider weight-lifters athletes.

The only Vandy lady who seemed comfortable on the lanes was Brittni Hamilton (pictured above). According to a university press release, the other bowlers, especially Josie Earnest, struggled with the lane conditions. Lane conditions? Did somebody spill her beer? Was the jukebox experiencing technical difficulty?

Anyway, today's play is double elimination. If Vandy survives today, the team will play the other remaining team for the national championship on ESPN2. And you didn't think this was big-time.

In today's double-elimination play, total pinfall matters. And you thought total pinfall always matters. But sometimes team play is best of three or best of five or whatever, and the Lady Commies seem to perform better in that type of format. For example, in yesterday's final match Vandy beat Maryland-Eastern Shore in three out of four games but they fared so poorly in the game they lost that they finished behind UMES in total points and got a No. 4 seed instead of a No. 3 seed.

Nebraska's the top seed (can you say grain-fed?) followed by New Jersey City and Maryland-Eastern Shore. After Vandy, there's Fairleigh Dickinson, Central Missouri, Delaware State and Arkansas State.