MABEL CUMMINS EARNS MASTERS BRONZE MEDAL AT 2019 WORLD BOWLING JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS   

SAINT-MAXIMIN, France - With each day at the 2019 World Bowling Junior Championships, Junior Team USA's Mabel Cummins became more comfortable on the 41-foot World Bowling Montreal oil pattern.

The 16-year-old right-hander averaged 208.3 over four days and 18 games (six games in singles, doubles and team) at Plaza Bowling Saint Maximin to finish 17th in the all-events standings and advance to Masters match play, which featured the top 24 girls and top 24 boys.

And that's when things fell into place for Cummins, a team gold-medalist at the 2018 World Bowling Youth Championships.

In four matches between Thursday and Friday, Cummins bowled 10 additional games, averaging more than 229.

She defeated Natalie Groll of Germany, 2-0 (223-200, 194-190), Iliana Salinas of Mexico, 2-0 (254-162, 231-222), and Singapore's Lu Yi Quek, 2-1 (234-256, 201-186, 221-214), before losing to Korea's Jeong Youngseon, 2-1 (277-196, 246-255, 213-225) in the Masters semifinals.

Cummins earned a bronze medal for the performance, while Jeong advances to Saturday's gold-medal match, where she will face her teammate, Hong Soree, a 2-1 semifinal winner over Norel Nuevo of the Philippines (223-235, 244-210, 222-201).

"I bowled a really great three-game set, but I had some inopportune pin carry that ultimately hurt me," said Cummins, a two-time member of Junior Team USA. "Overall, I'm really pleased with how I did in the Masters event. It's a big improvement from the World Youth Championships last summer, where I lost my first match.

"I've been working a lot on my match-play skills and being mentally tough in stressful situations, and I think I really excelled at that today."

The journey to the Masters medal round was one that took Cummins and Junior Team USA head coach Bryan O'Keefe through her six-ball arsenal and from one side of the lane to the other, multiple times during the week. But, they got there.

"The more they stripped and oiled the lanes, the cleaner the fronts got, which really helped out my ball reaction," Cummins said. "Early on, I had trouble getting the ball through the front part of the lane and still have it maintain energy, but as the week went on, my ball reaction got better."

Junior Team USA's Kamerin Peters was eliminated in the opening round of the Masters on Thursday, while Anthony Neuer, who had a first-round bye, and Solomon Salama, both were defeated Friday morning in Stage 2.

Cummins will have one more opportunity to conquer the Montreal pattern and claim the team's first gold medal of the inaugural World Junior Championships, and it will include a rematch with Jeong. The two won't be alone, however, since they'll be competing for the doubles gold medal.

Jeong will be joined on the lanes by Hong, while Peters will join her Junior Team USA teammate.

Another difference will be that the action at the World Junior Championships now shifts from Plaza Bowling Saint Maximin to a special two-lane setup inside Paris' Institut du Judo.

While the environment will be different and the lane characteristics they've experienced all week will be irrelevant, Cummins and Peters are versatile enough and will have a solid game plan, and some backup strategies, for the final match.

"I'm 100 percent confident in Kam's ability and my ability to execute 10 really great shots tomorrow, and we're really looking forward to it," Cummins said. "Yes, it's a new venue and a completely different environment, but it's still just bowling, and we've all had experience in unique settings."

The doubles finale will be part of an all-day extravaganza that will include the doubles, team and Masters finals, for both the girls and boys, in a venue that will help showcase the sport to a large in-person crowd and the countless bowling fans watching the broadcast across the world.

All of Saturday's gold-medal matches will be livestreamed on BowlTV. The action will get underway at 7 a.m. Eastern and last approximately five hours.

All qualifying rounds and semifinals, plus the singles finals, at the 2019 World Junior Championships took place at the 28-lane Plaza Saint Maximin and were livestreamed by World Bowling. The event included more than 100 bowlers, ages 13-18, from 35 countries.

Another twist for the first edition of the tournament was the use of the Current Frame Scoring system, where a strike counts for 30 pins, a spare counts for 10, plus the first-ball count and an open frame counts for actual pins knocked down. The 10th frame counts the same as all other frames, and with only 10 first balls each game, the maximum score still is 300.

For more information on Junior Team USA, visit BOWL.com/JuniorTeamUSA.

For complete details about the World Bowling Junior Championships, visit WorldBowling.org.

United States Bowling Congress
The United States Bowling Congress serves as the national governing body of bowling as recognized by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). USBC conducts championship events nationwide including the largest participation sporting events in the world - the USBC Open and Women's Championships - and professional events such as the USBC Masters and USBC Queens.

Founded in 1895, today USBC and its 1,638 state and local associations proudly serve more than a million members. USBC is headquartered in Arlington, Texas, working toward a future for the sport. The online home for USBC is BOWL.com.