Qualifying leader Clara Juliana Guerrero (pictured left and above) of Colombia remained atop the women's leaderboard after the round of 24 Wednesday morning at Sam's Town bowling center in Las Vegas to lead the top eight players into round robin match play at the 51st QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup.

The women's Round of 24 culminated in an exciting finish which determined not only the top 4 position but also decided the battle for 8th and last place to advance to the next round.

The top 4 women, Guerrero, Sandra Gongora (right) of Mexico, Team USA's Shannon Pluhowsky and Maria Bulanova of Russia were within 18 pins heading into the last game of fourth eight-game block this week.

Defending women's champion Guerrero (214) was the lone player of the quartet, who managed to shoot over 200 to leap from third to first place with 6901 total and an average of 215.66 for 32 games. Guerrero had the third-highest 1724 series today (215.50 average).

Gongora (185) maintained second place thanks to a double in the 10th frame. The Mexican toppled 1716 for 6874 total and an average of 214.81.

Pluhowsky (left; 191), who took the lead after the second game this morning before losing it to Guerrero after the third game, climbed up one spot to third place behind the second-best 1735 series and 6869 total (214.66).

Bulanova (right) fired games of 254, 203, 226, 248, 203, 225 and 207 to leap from fourth to first place heading into the final game. The 17-year-old European Champions Cup winner closed out with a low game of 158 to fall back to fourth place on 6854 (214.19).

There was a bigger gap between fourth and fifth place. Isabelle Hultin (left) of Sweden chalked up 6715 to sit in fifth position, trailing Bulanova by 139 pins.

Keira Reay (right) of England highlighted the round by rolling the first 300 game of the event in the 31st game to narrow the gap to the cut to just 16 pins heading into the final game. It was the 72nd perfect game in the history of the World Cup and the 14th by a woman.

Leading Reay by only 16 pins, Geraldine Ng (below left) showed no nerves and finished with 247 to leap into sixth place with 6681. Siti Safiyah (below right) of Malaysia and Sanna Pasanen (bottom right) of Finland rolled solid games to stay ahead of Reay and to secure seventh and eighth place with 6673 and 6646, respectively.

Reay had to settle for ninth place despite a 207 last game and was the first player below the cutline with 6625.

The top 8 women will return on Thursday, Nov. 19, at 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time (PST) for eight games of round robin match play (to be played simultaneously with the men) before the cut to the top 3 players who will advance to the stepladder finals starting at 12.30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time (PST).