By BILL SNIER
PARMA HEIGHTS — After earning the No. 1 seed for Saturday’s match-play round of the PWBA Pepsi Open, Alexis Runk had a simple game plan she wanted to follow.
“I can’t get caught up in watching my opponents. I have to stay within myself and make good shots,” Runk said.
“We know it’s going to be high scoring so I have to be OK with the breaks going the other way.”
Well, the 28-year-old Milton, Pa., right-hander had the right forecast about the breaks. Her response to it? Not so much.
But, in the end, it didn’t matter.
Runk, whose only previous finals appearance came during a trio event, earned her first career PWBA title by stopping six-time winner Stephanie Zavala 223-211 during Saturday’s title match at Yorktown Lanes.
“This is just pretty freakin’ incredible,” said Runk, who earned $10,000 after her first championship round appearance in six years on the PWBA Tour. “I’ve grown so much in the past two years and I was glad it came in a center where I’ve had a lot of success.”
The former Delaware State University standout and current Wartburg (Pa.) College head bowling coach had to win a pair of matches Saturday to secure that first title.
“I’m just toast right now. I said to (husband) Brandon that I could bowl 74 games this week. Of course, my two matches had to go five and four games … I was really getting my maximum out there,” Runk said. “But I’m just super grateful. I love to bowl. I had an amazing fit and I had no issue with gripping the ball at all.
“But after this week, I’m going to need a good 48-hour nap.”
It was even more impressive since Runk has been battling a stress fracture in her left foot most of the season.
“I was in a boot at the beginning of the season, but it has gotten progressively better,” Runk said. “It’s still tender but we’re pushing through.”
In the unique format the top 16 competitors after Friday’s 12 qualifying games started Saturday with best-of-five match-play by seed. That field was then cut to the top eight, with the four winners of those matches advancing to Saturday’s championship round.
SEMIFINAL MATCHES
Zavala, a 30-year-old Downey, Calif., right-hander, was seeking her third overall win at Yorktown when the night began. She captured the 2025 Cleveland Open during the PWBA Summer Slam and also won in 2021, the year she was the Tour’s Rookie of the Year.
Facing 26-year-old Aubrey, Texas, right-hander Hope Gramly, the 2023 rookie of the year who also was seeking her first title, in the first semifinal, Zavala started slow with just one strike through five frames. But she went on to run the last six en route to a 247-178 win.
Gramly was hurt by 2-10 splits in the second and fifth frames and missed a 10-pin spare in the 10th when the match had already been decided.
Runk then took on five-time champion Diana Zavjalova, a 35-year-old Latvia native now living in Fort Worth, Texas. For Zavjalova, it came down to a bad equipment decision to start the match.
While Runk stayed clean through the first five frames, throwing one double, Zavjalova started with three splits — a 3-7, 4-6-10 and a 2-4-6-9-10 — to put her behind. Then came a ball change.
Zavjalova, whose last title came in 2023 in Iowa and who threw the lone 300 during qualifying for this event, ran off three strikes to climb back into the match as Runk left a 2-10 split in the sixth.
Then disaster struck as she left 7-10 split on a light pocket hit in the seventh frame.
“It took some pressure off but she could still force me to make some shots,” Runk said. “She made that great ball change in the fourth and had one bad break. I’m glad it came my way though.”
After the split, Runk stayed clean the remainder of the game, finishing with five strikes in a row. Zavjalova also went on a three-strike run after the split, but left a 2-4-8 spare on her second shot in the 10th frame to end her hopes in a 225-189 loss.
TITLE MATCH
Zavala, who also battled injury problems earlier this season that forced her to withdraw from the U.S. Women’s Open after reaching match play, started the title match with two strikes, but then had three straight 9-count spares before striking in the sixth.
Runk, after a strike in the first, left a 6-7-10 split in the second before a double kept her within striking distance.
But disaster struck in the seventh for Zavala, who failed to convert a 10-pin spare.
“The shot in the second frame surprised me because I actually liked it off my hand,” Runk said. “I knew I needed to make a move, and I did, and I was fine after that.
“I have big emotions, but I’m usually good at shutting them down. But I have to be mentally aware to do that. When she missed the 10-pin, I was like, ‘It’s fine … you have a bit of an opening.’ ”
Runk was on a three-frame, 9-count spare run of her own before striking again in the eighth.
“I pride myself on my spare shooting,” Runk said. “With my game, I have to be able to execute, and I have to make spares if I want a chance. I’m grateful my spare shooting paid off.”
Then came one of those “breaks the other way” against Runk.
Zavala followed a strike in the eighth with a messenger coming of the left sidewall and taking out both the 6- and 10-pins on a high hit for a double entering the 10th.
“When she got that strike, I admit I was hot inside,” Runk said. “Then I was like, ‘OK, it’s fine … if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.’ I kept saying that to myself … just make the best shots you can.”
Runk was able to throw four straight strikes before leaving a 6-10 on her final shot to give Zavala an opening.
Needing three strikes in the 10th frame to win by one pin, Zavala struck on her first ball, but left a 4-6-10 split on her second shot to come up short.
“That last ball, I didn’t throw the best shot. Yeah, I was concerned. I got that shot too far up the lane,” said Runk, who again used her combination of the Brunswick Alert and Ebonite GB5 Pearl during her run. “Thankfully, it didn’t matter. If her strike or that shot would have mattered, I would have been toasted the rest of the night.
“That Alert was mind-blowingly good. It went from a ball I was trying so hard to like to my championship ball. That’s just crazy.
Instead, she joins her father, left-handed senior player Andrew Neuer, as a national tour winner. According to reports, this is the first time this has happenedd among American pro tours.
Her brother, Anthony, has seven regional titles, including one in April at Clutch Lanes and Sports Center in Cuyahoga Falls with his father. Her husband, Brandon, owns a pair of regional crowns.
Both Anthony and Brandon still are looking for their first national titles.
“(Anthony) texted me during practice. He said, ‘Don’t suck,’ ” Runk said laughing. “I’m going to go brag now … don’t you worry.”
Next comes the conclusion of PWBA Tour Championship Week, and Runk is in that field. How about two in a row?
“That’s a lofty expectation for me. We’ll see what the pattern is. Figuring out the lanes … that’s my favorite thing about bowling,” Runk said. “Hopefully, I can figure them out, have a good look and maybe we can give it a run.
“I’m just thankful I got this far.”
NOTEBOOK
POINTS LIST: The final 24 are set for the PWBA Tour Championship, which begins with eight round-robin match-play games at 5 p.m. Sunday. Birgit Noreiks was the final player into the field in 24th position. Gramly moved into the top 24 based on making the top four Saturday The field consists only of players who have either won a title this season or rank among the top 24 on the points list. Josie Barnes was in the top 24, but has chosen not tro participate, with Noreiks getting that spot as the alternate. The points list and competitors is attached below. The Tour Championship will continue with two more rounds of eight-game match play Monday before the cut to the final five for Tuesday’s 6:30 p.m. finals.
NO TWO-TIME WINNERS: Runk’s victory in the Pepsi Open means there still has not been a repeat champion during the 2026 PWBA National Tour season. There has been at least one repeat winner in every season in which the tour has been fully operational since 1963, excluding the dormant years from 2004-2014 and the canceled 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
