FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 22, 2015

CONTACT:
Gordon Vadakin
Phone (316) 978-7655
Fax (316) 978-6056
email - shocker.bowling@wichita.edu
www.wichita.edu/bowling

WICHITA, Kan. – The Professional Women’s Bowling Association has returned after a 12-year hiatus and Shockers have won at the first two events. Elysia Current (’06 – ’08) took home the Sacramento Open title and Jazreel Tan (’09 – ’13) won the Lubbock Sports Open.

Sacramento was the first stop of this new tour from July 9 – July 10. The tournament began with two, six game blocks of qualifying. After qualifying, the 80-women field was cut to the top 16 and they bowled round-robin match play. The top four women were then seeded into a one game, stepladder finals.

Current, from Ephrata, Penn., had an okay start and after six games was in 39th place. Things changed drastically during the second block as Current averaged 229 to jump into 10th.

“After the first block, I sat down to reflect on what I was doing those first six games. I spoke with Jim Callahan, my ball rep, and he got my mind back on track. I was mentally checking out and he helped me get focused on what needed to be done for the next block,” Current said.

Her match play record was 9-7-0 and that was good enough to gain the second seed in the stepladder finals. With a match one win over Missy Parkin (248-233), Current was one win away from her first professional title. The strikes kept coming as she defeated Kristina Wendell, 246-194, for the victory.

“It’s been a week and I am still not sure if it has sunk in yet. I’m not sure what it is supposed to feel like! Having some days to relax and reflect has let me realize what happened,” Current said.

The Lubbock Open featured the same format. The road for Singapore native Tan was much different than Current. Tan, who came to the United States with her Singaporean team, dominated the whole tournament and never fell off of the top of the leaderboard. During qualifying, Tan averaged 10 pins higher than second place per game.

“I’ve never led a tournament from start to finish. I normally start slow and have to play catch up. Leading from the start gave me some leeway and some time to make my decisions,” Tan said.

In the match play portion, Tan won 11 matches to keep her in the top spot.

“My game plan for match play was not very different from qualifying. Even though I had a lead, there were 30 bonus pins available so my lead could have been gone quickly. I stuck to my normal game plan of staying calm and making good decisions.”

As the number one seed, Tan only had to bowl one game. It was a high scoring match with a lot of strikes, but Tan prevailed with a 257-246 win over Stefanie Johnson.

“The tour folded the year I picked up a bowling ball; I never thought I would be able to compete on a professional tour, much less win an event! I have come up short finishing second in a lot of events and just won my first individual gold medal last month at the SEA Games. I didn't expect my second title to come so soon, not to mention it being a PWBA title,” said Tan. “It’s a pretty amazing feeling. It is quite expensive to fly over here to compete, but hopefully this opens the door for more internationals, especially Asians, to come over and compete too!”

The tour continues with six more regular tour stops, with the next one in Wichita! 12 current and former Shockers will compete this weekend at Northrock Lanes on Friday and Saturday, July 24 - 25. Competition begins Friday at 9:00 a.m. with round one of qualifying. Round two is at 2:30 p.m. The field is cut to the top 16 after qualifying and will bowl round one of match play Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. with round two at 1:30 p.m. The stepladder finals are at 6:30 p.m. Admission to watch all of the action is as follows:

Friday, July 24
Qualifying Round One (6 games), 9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. - $5
Qualifying Round Two (6 games), 2:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. - $5
Saturday, July 25
Match Play (8 games), 8:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. - $10
Match Play (8 games), 1:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. - $10
Stepladder Finals, 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. - $10
*an all-inclusive VIP pass can be purchased for $30, contact Northrock Lanes for tickets

There will be a pro-am at 8:00 p.m. on Friday evening. Contact Northrock Lanes at (316) 636-5444 for more information.

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The Rhatigan Student Center has been the major financial and administrative supporter of the Wichita State University bowling program since 1959.