By BILL SNIER
snieronbowling.com
PARMA HEIGHTS — When Stephanie Zavala was asked earlier in the week what she knew about Yorktown Lanes, she had a very simple description.
“I know there are a lot of strikes left out there,” the 2021 Greater Cleveland Open champion said.
She just didn’t expect them all to come on one lane Thursday night.
The 29-year-old Downey, Calif., right-hander celebrated her birthday in style by earning her sixth career Professional Women’s Bowling Association title and second at Yorktown with a 207-173 win over Olivia Komorowski in the PWBA Cleveland Open finals.
“This just feels amazing. Honestly, I’m really tired … it’s been a long day,” said Zavala whose last win came in the 2023 PWBA BowlTV Classic in Wyoming, Mich. “It feels like another dream off the wish list has come true.”
The event is one of three this week during the PWBA Summer Series — Cleveland at Yorktown. The second tournament in the run begins at 10 a.m. Friday with eight qualifying games in the PWBA BowlTV Open.
Players had to go through 18 match-play games Thursday before the top five advanced to the stepladder finals.
Zavala, who gave herself the nickname of “slow start Stephanie,” came into Thursday after sharing the qualifying lead with Malaysia’s Siti Rahman by averaging 226.27 over 12 games.
But in the first shift Thursday, Zavala had three games under 200 during her first four with a 2-2 record to fall to the cut spot in fifth position. But despite a 163 in Game 15 of match play, she was able to secure the No. 1 seed with 6,194 total pinfall, 80 pins in front of Crystal Elliott with an 11-5 overall record.
She was not going to let a slow start stop her on this night, choosing to practice with plastic equipment.
“I knew for me to play to my strengths, I needed the pattern to stretch a bit. Games 1 and 2 out of the gate have been a little bit lower than the others for me so I had to get left and be able to really hit the ball,” said Zavala, who took home $10,000 for the title.
“We talked it over and we knew we needed to stretch the pattern … and plastic was going to do that. That was 100 percent the game plan.”
But during the practice sessions, Zavala also developed another part of her game plan.
“I knew the right lane (on Lanes 23 and 24) was going to be heavily favored,” Zavala said. “I just told myself exactly what was happening on that lane and would try to grind it out on the left.
“I knew I absolutely wanted to finish on the right lane.”
STRUGGLING STEPLADDER
The problems with the 39-foot 2025 Cleveland Open oil pattern were apparent from the start on the pair during the finals.
The night started with Ukraine right-hander and No. 5 seed Dasha Kovalova, now living in Muskegon, Mich., facing future Hall of Famer Kelly Kulick, a 48-year-old right-hander and seven-time PWBA champion.
Between Kovalova, who owns five PWBA titles, and Kulick only six strikes were thrown through the first nine frames — four by the Ukrainian
While Kovalova left just an 8-10 split through the first nine frames, Kulick had four splits and one washout (1-2-4-6-10) as the former gained a 193-147 win. At one point, when she finally struck in the ninth, Kulick raised her arms in the air in a mock celebration.
It got better for Kovalova in the quarterfinals, but Elliott, the 2024 PWBA Rookie of the Year and a 24-year-old who also was seeking her first title, had just two strikes through nine frames. The latter left a 2-10 split in the second frame, but finished with just one double into the 10th frame.
The 30-year-old Kovalova, who also left a 2-10 split in the fifth, ran off four straight strikes into the 10th to earn a 216-189 win. It would ultimately be the high score of the night.
Kovalova fell victim to the same problems as her other stepladder competitors in the semifinals against Komorowski, making her first career stepladder finals appearance.
In a battle of Wichita State University alumni, both struck in the first frame. But Kovalova struck just once more the rest of the way, leaving a 2-8-10 split in the second and a 2-4-8-10 split in the 10th.
Komorowski, who qualified sixth but stayed among the leaders all through match play, left a 6-7-10 split in the fourth, but also had a three-strike run from the sixth through the eighth frame en route to a 195-166 win and a spot in the finals.
“As we went on, the pair was just continuing to read early for me,” said Komorowski, a 25-year-old Oshkosh, Wis., right-hander. “Especially with using a urethane ball it was difficult to make moves. They weren’t the traditional moves you make with reactive balls.
“That caught up to me.”
TITLE MATCH
It was Zavala who started slow in the title match, leaving a 4-6-7 split in the opening frame, starting on the left lane in sticking with her game plan.
“That was execution on my part,” Zavala said. “Anxiousness and nerves got the best of me in the beginning. But also with all the urethane and again me throwing plastic in practice, that lane just didn’t develop as much as the right lane did.”
Komorowski would strike just three more times in the game, leaving a 4-7-10 in the fifth and a pocket 7-10 split in the eighth frame.
“It was not an easy pair. Throwing urethane, it was hooking early. Then, I would move left and it wouldn’t hook at all,” said Komorowski, who used a Hammer Purple in the finals. “On the 7-10, I felt it was OK (off my hand), but I wasn’t looking for a 7-10.”
Meanwhile, Zavala threw eight straight strikes on the right lane, finishing with three in a row in the 10th frame. She got the one key strike on the left lane in the ninth — on a Brooklyn hit — to finish with five in a row.
“Absolutely not,” Zavala said when asked it she liked that shot off her hand. “That was a little bit of a birthday gift to myself. But I’m not mad about it though. I don’t care how they fall as long as they do.”
Zavala’s only misses — the split in the first and a chopped 3-6-10 spare in the fifth — came on the left lane.
Were nerves a factor for Komorowski in her first stepladder finals?
“I was OK,” said Komorowski, who took home $5,000. “I just tried not to think about it and continue to bowl.”
As for Zavala, her game plan worked out to provide the perfect birthday gift.
“We knew the left lane was extremely tight and we had to be a little more perfect,” said Zavala, who used a 900 Global Sublime Focus in the finals. “I just had to trust the ball change.”
Now it’s on to the next event in a busy week.
“I’m going to go home, take a hot shower and then start fresh in the morning,” Zavala said. “I’m going to allow myself about 30 seconds to enjoy this and then it’s back to work.”
And that will be on a different oil pattern, also with a different format.
“The next pattern is a little trickier. There are some question marks floating around because there really isn’t a defined area to play in yet,” Zavala said. “There will be eventually, but I’m expecting a slower scoring pace.”
And so the week continues — with two more tourneys and four more days to grind.
MATCH PLAY
The stepladder finals came down to the final position-round matches in the afternoon.
The big battle came for the No. 5 seed, with Alexis Runk holding a six-pin lead on Colombia native and Kent resident Rocio Restrepo heading into the position round, with Kovalova being 26 pins back.
Runk struggled to a 195-163 win over Restrepo to fall short of the finals while Kovalova shot 257 in her match against Ashly Galante to vault past Runk and Restrepo into the No. 5 spot by 36 pins.
Komorowski shot 259 against Kulick in that final match to vault into second past Elliott, a 24-year-old Palm Bay, Fla., right-hander who led after the first round of match play.
Runk ultimately finished sixth and Julia Bond and Rahman passed Restrepo, who finished ninth overall.
NOTEBOOK: Zavala and Komorowski finished with the best match-play marks of 11-5. … Zavala averaged a tourney-high 218.89 for 28 games prior to the stepladder finals, with Kulick averaging 216.54. … The only 300 games in the event were rolled during qualifying by Diandra Asbaty and Nora Lyana Norkamal. … The PWBA BowlTV Open begins at 10 a.m. Friday with the first qualifying eight-game qualifying round. The second qualifying round is set for5 p.m. before the field is cut to the top 12 for two rounds of round-robin match play Saturday. All-day pass tickets are $20, $15 for each session. Saturday’s stepladder finals are $25 and will begin at 6:30 p.m. … All events during the Summer Series will be livestreamed on BowlTV.