Team USA advances four to Singles match play at Pan Am Games

    07/26/07

    Brazil

    Mexico's bronze medal from women's doubles reinstated

    2007PAGLogo_small.jpg One day after winning two doubles gold medals in convincing fashion, all four Team USA players are in the running to close the Pan American Games bowling competition with a second medal.

    Men's doubles gold medalists Rhino Page of Topeka, Kan., and Cassidy Schaub of Polk, Ohio, both advanced to singles match play by finishing in the top 16 after eight qualifying games Wednesday at Barra Bowling Center. The same was true for women's doubles gold medalists Tennelle Milligan of Costa Mesa, Calif., and Diandra Asbaty of Chicago.

    Thursday's match play features a unique format, with the first two rounds featuring three-game, total-pins matches. The semifinal, bronze medal and gold medal matches then will be conducted in a best-of-three games format. Advancing players are reseeded after the first two rounds in order of highest pinfall from the previous round.

    Page made a late charge - closing with 290 and 246 games - to finish second at 1,810 (226.25 average) and earn the No. 2 seed. The left-handed 2005 U.S. Amateur champion will meet Puerto Rico's Frankie Colon in the first round Thursday.

    "That's a great feeling going into tomorrow to finish like that," said Page, who won the Masters gold medal at the Men's American Zone Championships in May. "After second game in the final block, I made a goal to finish high as possible and hopefully catch (Mexico's Daniel) Falconi in second. It was a little bit of motivation I lacked all day."

    A shaky 167 in Game 5 set Schaub back, but the two-handed lefthander responded nicely with 210 and 247 games and finished eighth with 1,695 (211.88 average). His first-round opponent is surprising David Maycock of Bermuda.

    "The goal was to make it to tomorrow," said Schaub, who was in third place after the four-game morning session. "The second goal was to not bowl Rhino in the first round. After 167, it was more about surviving."

    On the women's side, Milligan qualified fifth with 1,662 (207.75 average) and will face Canada's Kerrie Ryan-Ciach in the Thursday's first round.

    "Today was a little bit more of a grind. The lanes played tighter than they have," said Milligan, who shot 249 and 254 in Games 4 and 5, respectively, but closed with a 152. "Game plan was to get through the day as easily as possible and we wanted to test the lanes out a bit.

    "Tomorrow is a whole new tournament. It's game on."

    Asbaty, who finished eighth with 1,637 (204.63 average), will meet Venezuela's Alicia Marcano in the first round. Asbaty defeated Marcano in May en route to her World Ranking Masters title.

    "My ball reaction wasn't as good as it was the past couple of days, so I tried to figure out why and how to make it better," said Asbaty, who briefly took a one-pin lead over Milligan lead after shooting 257 in Game 5 but followed with 156. "Whatever is out there tomorrow I feel I'll be ready for it. It was a really long day, but we have a good idea now."

    Competition begins at 6:30 a.m. Eastern (7:30 a.m. local). The bronze medal matches are scheduled for 2:30 p.m., followed by the women's gold medal match at 4:30 p.m. and the men's gold medal match at 5:45 p.m.

    In other news, Mexico's Adriana Perez and Sandra Gongora had their bronze medal from women's doubles reinstated by the Jury of Appeals after it was determined that Mexico did not use an unregistered ball in competition.

    Perez and Gongora finished the 12-game event with 4,935, just ahead of Brazil's Jacque Costa and Roseli Santos with 4,874.

    Since bowling received medal-sport status in 1991, the U.S. has amassed 24 medals, twice more than second-best Mexico with 12.

    The XV Pan American Games, which run July 13-29, are an Americas version of the Olympic Games which includes the Olympic Program sports and others that are not part of the Olympics. The bowling competition, consisting of singles and doubles events, runs through Thursday at Barra Bowling Center, a 20-lane facility located in the Barra Shopping Mall.

    An estimated 5,500 athletes from 42 countries are competing in 28 sports at the XV Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro. Conducted every four years, the first Pan American Games were held in 1951 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.


    XV Pan American Games


    Barra Bowling in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil


    Men's Singles - Standings after Qualifying


    Top 16 advance to match play.




    Women's Singles - Standings after Qualifying


    Top 16 advance to match play.