By BILL SNIER
PARMA HEIGHTS — After battling their way to reach the stepladder finals over the last two games of qualifying, being right didn’t turn out that way during Sunday’s PWBA Cleveland Regional stepladder finals at Yorktown Lanes.
For Alyssa Pierson, a 32-year-old Waukesha, Wis., nonmember right-hander in her first PWBA stepladder finals, and two-time PWBA regional champion Summer Jasmin, a 36-year-old Beckley, W.Va., right-hander, the championship pair turned out tighter than expected.
Jasmin, who captured her first regional title in 2016 in stopping USBC and LPBA Hall of Famer Liz Johnson, was able to open the stepladder finals with a 177-162 win over No. 3 seed Pierson. But neither ever felt comfortable on Lanes 21 and 22.
Pierson, who shot 202 her final game to earn a finals spot by just 17 pins, admitted to being more nervous during that last qualifying game than in the finals.
“I knew I had to bowl a decent game just to get there,” said Pierson, who captured the 2024 Badger Queens tournament in Wisconsin. “But after that it was, OK, I made it … whatever happens happens.”
But after an early double, Pierson threw a gutter ball on her first shot in the fourth frame. She only got nine pins on her second shot for the open frame.
“I just got in my head and started thinking about other things,” Pierson said. “I just totally missed the shot at the bottom and couldn’t recover.”
Pierson had just two strikes the rest of the way, leaving a 2-8-10 split in the seventh frame. Then, needing a double for a win in the 10th frame, she left a 10-pin on her opening shot.
“I thought about making a ball change when the ball went high. I moved in a couple (of boards) but I couldn’t get the ball around the corner,” Pierson said. “I wondered If I should change, but in a one-game match, it’s tough to make a change. I stuck with what was comfortable even though I felt I had to make it hook.”
Jasmin did make a ball change to one she hadn’t used during qualifying and made a move left late against Pierson. It resulted in a double to clinch the match.
She stuck with the strategy in the semifinals against Brunswick left-hander and eventual champion Melissa Voytko, but the left lane became a problem.
“I felt like it hooked a little more and it was just harder to get the ball through the front for me. They were definitely trickier,” Jasmin said. “If you missed a little right, sometimes it would hang up. And if you missed left, it would take off.
“In the first match, the right lane was trickier, but then it became the left lane. I changed balls so I would have some more miss room right and then had to change again. It was the right ball on the right lane, but not the left.”
While Jasmin had her problems, Voytko was able to stay clean, throwing just one double en route to a 205-162 win. Jasmin finished the game with four strikes, but also failed to convert a pair of 3-6-10 spares — both on the left lane — before also leaving a 3-4-6-7 split on that lane.
“That opening match, I was just nervous because I had never been in that situation before,” Voytko said. “Summer was the first PWBA player I became friends with outside of Ohio.
“It’s nice to bowl against a friend in that situation, but it’s also hard. She’s just an incredible human being.”
NOTEBOOK
GOING TO SHOWDOWN: By virtue of her title, Voytko has earned a match-play spot in the PWBA Regional Showdown, set for Dec. 5-7 at Aloma Bowl in Winter Park, Fla. The winner of that event, as an added bonus, has all her entries paid for the 2024-25 PWBA National Tour season. A match-play berth in the Showdown is a guaranteed cash in the field. No national title holders are permitted to bowl that event.
WITHDRAWALS: Painesville’s Marissa Allison withdrew following Game 3 due to injury. She was 64th in the standings with 528 after three and had just started Game 4. … Also withdrawing after Game 6 was Shanna Chepelsky due to a thumb injury. She was sitting 63rd at the time.
BACK IN 2025: According to PWBA director or operations Damon Sarrocco, the PWBA Classic Series will be returning to Yorktown Lanes on May 27 through June 2. The Series includes three events during that week with three titles on the line for the regular tour.
WHERE NEXT: The PWBA regional tour will be in Greeley, Colo., on Oct 26 before heading back East for an event Nov. 3 at ABC Gates Bowl in Gates, N.Y. The season concludes with the Showdown.
NOTEBOOK: The original field had 87 players, which included 65 nonmembers. There were three senior players (ages 50 and older) and two high school players. … Only 16 players averaged 200 or better during the eight-game qualifier. … It took an average of 194 to gain one of the 29 cash spots in the field, with Victoria Giardina earning the final spot with 1,552, just nine pins ahead of Kerry Smith. .. High game of qualifying belonged to Jasmin, who shot 278 in Game 7 to vault into the top four. … Apollo Beach, Fla., right-hander Elise Bolton had won the two previous regionals at Yorktown, but finished in a tie for 38th this season with Linda Burns and Uniontown’s Marissa Perrine at 1,501, an average of 187.63. Jordan Richard captured the 2023 Bowlers Journal Cleveland Open regular tour stop. … Among Ohioans also cashing were Columbus’ Courtney Burris (seventh, 1,644), who was the Game 1 leader; Cleveland’s Valentina Zapata-Amaya (11th, 1,620); Reynoldsburg’s MIranda Hull (19th, 1,590); Kettering’s Andrea Behr (20th, 1,579); North Olmsted’s Katelyn Hull (21st, 1,578); and Cleveland’s Alexis Cloud and Sylvania’s Jackie Kohler (tie for 23rd, 1,573).