Team USA's Shannon Pluhowsky (left) and Canada's George Lambert IV (right) earned the gold medals Saturday in Masters match play to close out the 2012 Pan American Bowling Confederation Adult Championships.

Pluhowsky, the reigning World Champion in Masters, defeated teammate Liz Johnson, 238-226, to win the women's title, while Lambert fired a perfect game in defeating Puerto Rico's Francisco Colon, 300-175, at Sunset Station's Strike Zone Bowling Center in suburban Las Vegas.

The Masters gold capped off a successful week for Team USA which led the medal tally with eight gold medals (four each for men and women), six silver medals and three bronze medals. Canada captured two gold medals in men's division, while Colombia and Venezuela shared the remaining two golds in the women's division.

The United States hopes to carry that success forward to next year's World Tenpin Bowling Association World Championships, which will be held in the same venue in 2013.

"To come out here and do so well as a team really gives us some momentum going into the World Championships," Pluhowsky said. "We have to try and defend our home turf next year, and that will be a challenge, but this was good preparation for it."

In the women's semifinals, Pluhowsky took down 2009 Women's World Champion in Masters, Clara Guerrero of Colombia, 234-213, while Johnson (right) defeated teammate Josie Earnest, 216-214. Guerrero and Earnest each earned a bronze medal.

George Lambert IVdelivered 12 perfect strikes in claiming the men's Masters gold medal for the Canadians, who also won the men's trios gold medal this week.

"After the seventh and eighth strikes, I knew I had a good lead to win the match," Lambert said. "It seemed the job was done, and the 300 was just the icing on the cake."

Lambert won his semifinal match against top seed Tommy Jones of the United States, 226-197, while Colon (left) took down Team USA's Bill O'Neill, 204-202. The PBA stars each earned a bronze medal.

The top 24 men and top 24 women in the All Events standings after 24 games (Singles, Doubles, Trios and Team preliminaries) advanced to Saturday's Masters competition.

All players bowled six games before the field was cut to the top eight in each division for round robin match play. Half of the men's and women's field, four men and four women, came from the United States.

After 37 total games, including match play bonus pins (20 pins per win), the top four men and top four women determined the champion in one-game matches.

The 2012 PABCON Adult Championships featured competition in Singles, Doubles, Trios, Team, All Events and Masters with 17 countries being represented in the women's division (90 players) and 18 countries taking part in the men's division (106 players).

The event also served as the qualifier for the 2013 WTBA Combined World Championships. As the host country, the United States automatically qualified and will be joined at the World Championships in representing the American Zone in both the men's and women's divisions by Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Canada, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Dominican Republic and Costa Rica.