Week 17 Recap
Trevor (75-61-0) : Tyson (78-58-0)
WEEK 18
Match #1 – CAMPBELL vs. RODYCH
These two teams are coming off quite different weeks. Team Campbell is riding in on a high after taking down the league #1 ranked Team D. Gelardi. The night was sparked with Alyssa Campbell (1100) throwing her best night of the season, sweeping Calvin Cline (899) and giving us the first real glimpse of tournament Alyssa in a league setting. When you add victories by both Tabatha Gelardi (847) and Jessica Meurrens (1021), Team Campbell dominated the top three positions. This more than made up for the ass-kicking Kyle Costello (908) took from Dwayne Gelardi (1097). Unfortunately for Team Rodych, they also got kicked around by Team Youzwa, with the exception of Jennifer Devenney (982). The top two Amanda Devenney (735) and Derek Sanderson (772) managed just a single point off Jesse Gagnon (918) and Jennifer Duncan (838), though it’s to be expected when there was only one game over 191 between them. Matt Rodych (915) seemingly remembered he was an anchor half way through the night starting with a 379 double but finish with a 536-double to salvage his total, just avoid the sweep thanks to the game four 272-246 win over Colton Youzwa (966).
Key Matchup
The key to Team Rodych’s successful weeks has been a product of a strong performance from their top half, but the past couple weeks those performances have been non-existent with 11/16 games between them being below 200. Unless we see them both get into the 850-900 range, this week could get very messy very fast, especially if Alyssa carries her scores from last week into this week.
Tyson’s Pick: Team Campbell
Trevor’s Pick: Team Campbell
Match #2 – KING vs. FLEMING
Both these teams coming off losses are going to be hungry to have a bounce back week, none more so than Team King who needs to turn on the jets if they want to have any chance of pulling themselves into the top 8, currently 51 points out. They had last week in their hands too until a game four surge from Team LaMonica saw it all disappear. The last game had both Garry Bell (791) blow a 52-pin lead losing 203-276 to Jeff Bradshaw (812) as well as had the team go from being 109 pins up to 124 pins down in the blink of an eye. Matt Turanski (1121) finishing with a 406 obviously played a big factor in that. Team Fleming would have needed a lot of 400s in the last game to pull out a win on Team Naugler. It never helps when you don’t have a leadoff, especially when you have to take 159 as the absent score. We will focus on the bright spot on their night though which was Mark Prystupa (858) taking down Jordan Nickerson (820) with his new season high. Mark’s current 180 average is not reflective of how he has been bowling the past couple months where he has averaged 195. He is also undefeated this year when shooting over 800, something for Anthony Novak’s spare to think about tonight.
Wayne King (836) held onto his total by a single pin last week, but has now had four of his last five weeks below 900. His opponent Brooke Goulet has also had four-straight under 900. I will take the over and say they both break 900 this week, but the one who wins will be over 950.
Tyson’s Pick: Team King
Trevor’s Pick: Team King
Match #3 – NAUGLER vs. D. GELARDI
After winning the first half, Team D. Gelardi has not had a hot start to the second half losing their first two. Last week’s loss came at the hand of Alyssa’s team, with both Dwayne Gelardi’s (1097) fiancé and mother taking wins off his team. Dwayne maintained his spot as top average in the league, dominating Kyle Costello (908) and hopping back on the 1000-train. One person their team desperately wants back on that train is Jesse Leyte (926), who after taking a loss to Jessica Meurrens (1021) is now riding a three-game losing streak, with only three points during that span. Team Naugler has continued to look rejuvenated since the return of Kevin Naugler (1150) storming their way up into 9th place just barely out of the top 8. Considering he almost didn’t make league Kevin looks like he made the right decision as he puts up a season high total, with phenomenal bowling all night, his low game being 260 and having two games over 300 as well. It would not have been a fun night to be the person who had the misfortune of playing Kevin. The team also saw Jeston Bartram (991) bounce-back after a rough start to the second half, but last week looked like the same old anchor that was dominant in the latter part of the second half, only mssing out on the sweep of Brooke Goulet (804) due to a 199-202 loss in game three.
Key Matchup
As long as Jesse and Calvin Cline (899) remain in the current slumps they have been in Team D. Gelardi is a vulnerable team. Calvin especially came out of the gate so hot to start the season four of the first five weeks over 930, but has only had one week over 900 since then. This is a week I believe their team will need both of them over that 900-mark.
Tyson’s Pick: Team Naugler
Trevor’s Pick: Team D. Gelardi
Match #4 – HOWARTH vs. NELSON
These are two teams who both need a good half to get themselves into the A-side. Team Nelson did not help themselves last week, getting stomped by Team Armstrong. No one on the team got stomped harder than Tyson Nelson (977) at anchor, facing off with Randy Morrissette (1210) who was lights out all night, abruptly ending Tyson’s three-week win streak. The one streak that did not come to an end is Cindy Cousins’ (976) seven-week win streak which is currently the longest active streak, averaging 230 over that span. Aside from Cindy the whole team was just outgunned at every position, with no matches within 70 pins at the end of the night. Team Howarth had a similar night just they had their success up top with both Tracy Jubinville (877) and Ray Bartel (856) picking up wins in close matchups with Erik Stewart (845) and Michael Linsenmeier (830) respectively. Tracy had the biggest comeback of the night, being down 111 going into the last game and pulling out a 317-174 win in game four to sweep the rug out from under Erik. Ray has now won three in a row and has been big part of their recent success. The bottom half didn’t have any horribly bad games, but only one over 225 is not a winning recipe either in those positions.
Key Matchup
These two teams have not had consistently successful performances from their top half most of this season. With the only instance of back-to-back wins being Ray’s current streak and Dave and Lisa only getting past two straight wins once. This top half will be a big wildcard.
Tyson’s Pick: Team Nelson
Trevor’s Pick: Team Nelson
Match #5 – ARMSTRONG vs. LOURENCO
These were two of the most dominant teams last week with 5/8 bowlers over the 960-mark. Team Armstrong leaned heavily on Linda Orne (962) who had her second-best night of the year, beating up on Dave Duncan (860) for most of the night. Linda’s magic number this year has been 900, she’s 6-0 when she can get over that mark. The biggest offensive weap they had last week was obviously Randy Morrissette (1210) who now sits tied for second for highest four game total this season, capping his night off with a big 361. Ironically the 361 in game four was not even enough for a high game pot thanks to Matt Turanski’s 406 the same game. Randy’s opponent this week will be Belle Lourenco (1101) was one of four players 1100 or more last week and she can be added to the short list of players this season who have multiple 300s in the same night, with both a 323 and 338. She now improves to 5-1 over her last six weeks, averaging 249 over that span putting her top five in the league over that span. It really seems like all anyone on Team Lourenco needs to do to get out of a slump is go play leadoff, as they lead the league in 950+ totals in the leadoff position, and Alycia Mann (994) was no exception to that rule in Week 17.
Key Matchup
This is another matchup where I think the top half will be crucial. Both teams have a lot of potential up top but are prone to the odd down week. Given Jon Linley (712) is coming off his worst week of the season his bounce back will be a big focus if his team wants to get ahead early.
Tyson’s Pick: Team Lourenco
Trevor’s Pick: Team Lourenco
Match #6 – YOUZWA vs. LAMONICA
Both teams come in undefeated in the second half so far, with Team Youzwa currently leading the half with 47 points. Team Youzwa had a slower night with not a lot of big scores, but had probably one of its most well round nights as well. The biggest difference maker was Jesse Gagnon (918) picking up the 183-pin sweep of Amanda Devenney (735), making up 80% of their margin of victory. The new half has been a fresh start for Jesse averaging 225 so far in the half after finishing the first half with three straight sub-800s. Jennifer Duncan (847) with her victory over Derek Sanderson (772) remains tied with Cindy Cousins for the longest active win streak at seven weeks. Team LaMonica’s success has been up and down all year. Last week was no where near a good night for them, with the exception of Matt Turanski (1121) who now has the second highest game in the league with his 406. Without that singular game though the rest of the night was very slow paced for them, and especially bad for Andrew LaMonica (835) who was only in his match due to Wayne King (8360 being equally bad. Game four is the only time they came alive and really put some pressure on Team King, and it obviously paid off as they snatched two totals and grand total thanks to a 1154-921 win. Jeff Bradshaw (813) was the one who made a real late-night push, making up 52-pins on Garry Bell (791) in game four, 276-203.
Key Matchup
This match is going to come down to the thirds and anchors. I would say Team Youzwa has the advantage at both, especially with Andrew LaMonica (835) continually declining each week, at current pace he will be lucky to break 800 this week. Assuming that is not the case Matt is still a big wildcard, especially when you consider he has no weeks between 895-1000. So, he is really boom or bust. If it’s a boom week I say his team has a chance.
Tyson’s Pick: Team Youzwa
Trevor’s Pick: Team Youzwa
Match #7 – COOK vs. S. GELARDI
Team S. Gelardi is another top five team from the first half that is still looking for their first win in the second. The fact that the team managed to stay above 10 points last week with a 3324 total is lucky enough, a big part of that was their sweep of game one winning three games by a single ball. The closest matchup has to be the spares matchup that saw Tyler Reynolds (813) split the night with Ralph Gelardi (813) 2.5 points each, each game decided by no more than 20 pins. The rest of the team’s totals were pretty close, the only place where Team S. Gelardi fell behind was at leadoff where Cyndie Barnett (990) just massacred Lana Wachal (794), making up the majority of the pin differential. Team Cook had a much better night score wise, but ended up with just as many points as Team S. Gelardi in the end. Derek Sabourin (822) figured out the real key to winning, don’t bowl better, just bring them down to your level which is exactly what happened letting him sweep Jon Linley (712) picking up his second sweep of the season. Zach Friesen (956) was also part of a split night facing James Jubinville (963) only theirs they tied game two and James made the game four comeback for both the game and the total giving them each 2.5 points. Even Char McIvor (920) had an interesting match winning on the night despite losing total by 74 pins to Alycia Mann (994), the difference being her game one loss 155-315.
Key Matchup
The one thing these teams do have in common at the moment is struggling captains. Both Sam Gelardi (844) and Trevor Cook (850) have been sub-900 the past two weeks with Trevor averaging 216 and Sam averaging 204. For guys of this caliber, you have to think three straight weeks this low is not likely, especially with it being a Kingpin night and money on the line.
Tyson’s Pick: Team Cook
Trevor’s Pick: Team Cook
Match #8 – HENDRICKSON vs. STEVENSON
Team Hendrickson really hopped on Cyndie Barnett’s (990) back for total in this one as she pulled out the 196-pin win over Lana Wachal (794), featuring a 758-triple to finish. This brings Cyndie to 4-1 over her last five weeks. Unfortunately, that is the exact opposite of Robbie Hendrickson (860) over that span, who has not had a hot start to his anchor career, especially after a very winnable night against Sam Gelardi (844) that just saw Robbie lose too many games to sub-220 scores, it very easily could have been a 4-1 night for him. Team Stevenson is not having the same struggle of late, with Dylan Stevenson (990) averaging 263 in the second half and picking up back-to-back wins, last week taking advantage of a very off night from Glen Howarth (832). The other key to their early second half success is Jayson May (999) who also has back-to-back weeks over 980, though the totals don’t reflect it his match with Craig Enns (873) was quite close until game four when Jason blew it open with a 333-225 victory. Erik Stewart (845) will be looking for his first win of the half after having last week slip through his fingers giving up 143 pins to Tracy Jubinville (877) to give away his total.
Key Matchup
I think the key here will be how does Chad Hurd’s spare perform; spares are always a wild card especially in this average range. Assuming they play average I think the pressure really comes down to Robbie to step up and meet Dylan head on. Team Hendrickson needs some big games to spark some momentum.
Tyson’s Pick: Team Stevenson
Trevor’s Pick: Team Stevenson
Meme of the Week:
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