DALLAS, Texas – McKendree University graduate student All-American women's bowler Hope Gramly (Prosper, Texas/Prosper) recorded a third place finish at Saturday's stepladder finals of the 2022 PWBA Pepsi Classic held here at USA Bowl.
 
Gramly, who earned the No. 4 seed following 24 games of match play, opened the stepladder finals with a 193-171 win over No. 5 seed Olivia Farwell, who was named the 2022 NTCA Division I Player of the Year at Duquesne.
 
Following her win over Farwell, Gramly faced Tannya Lopez of Mexico in the second match of the stepladder finals and Gramly would earn a 246-203 win in her second championship-round appearance of the season after recording a fifth-place finish at the United States Bowling Congress Queens Open in May.
 
With the win over Lopez, Gramly advanced to a semifinal match against No. 2 seeded Dasha Kovalova of Ukraine. In the match, Kovalova opened with four consecutive strikes, but needed a strike to start her final frame to secure a 228-216 win to advance the championship final against Danielle McEwan, who was looking to earn her eighth PWBA Tour Championship.
 
Gramly's spot in Saturday's stepladder finals was determined following her strong play in Friday's two six-game rounds of qualifying and Saturday's two six-game rounds of match play with total pinfall and bonus pins determining the Top 5 for the stepladder finals.
 
In Saturday's match play, Gramly recorded a tie for fourth place with a 5-6-1 record and a total of 5,305 pins. Gramly tied with Farwell, who went 6-6-0 in match play. Gramly and Farwell beat out McKendree women's bowling coach and two-time PWBA Player of the Year Shannon O'Keefe for the final spot in the stepladder finals as O'Keefe went 6-4-2 in match play and recorded a total of 5,298 pins.
 
Gramly, who has been named the NCAA Division II Player of the Year the past two seasons by the NTCA, moved up from 18th place to the top of the standings in Friday's qualifying during her six-game block as she recorded a 12-game score of 2,666 pins for a 222.17 average.

In addition to Gramly, Julia Bond, who is the defending champion at the Pepsi Classic, sits in second place with a 2,643 total, while Danielle McEwan sits in third place with 2,638 pins. O'Keefe finished in sixth place in qualifying with a total of 2,586 pins.

The 12 players from the 83-player field advanced to Saturday's match play at the Pepsi Classic. The advancers were scheduled to bowl two six-game match play rounds on Saturday.

Gramly has had a busy spring and summer bowling in some of the biggest events since helping lead the Bearcats to the 2022 NCAA Women's Bowling Championship.

Following the NCAA Championships, Gramly, who is still an amateur as she will be completing her final season of intercollegiate bowling in 2022-23, competed at the United States Bowling Congress Queens in May, where she advanced to the stepladder finals and posted a fifth-place finish and that helped her earn a spot in match play at the U.S. Women's Open in June as she posted a 14th place finish, before competing in the season ending PWBA Dallas Classic Series.

The Dallas Classic Series includes the final three events of the 2022 season – PWBA Dallas Classic, Pepsi Classic and PWBA Tour Championship.

Bryanna Coté won the Dallas Classic for her second title of the season on Thursday at USA Bowl, and the Tour Championship is scheduled for Aug. 7-9.

At the Dallas Classic, Gramly posted a 41st place finish and was 31 pins outside the cut at the Pepsi Classic after her first six-game block on Friday as she recorded a total of 1,257 pins.

In the second six-game block, Gramly recorded games of 239, 234, 208, 255, 269 and 204 for a total of 1,409 pins to move into first place.

"In the first block, I didn't handle the transition very well," Gramly said in a release posted on BowlersJournal.com. "I didn't make a ball change when I needed to. Fortunately for me, I didn't have to make that ball change this block. I was able to stay in the same ball the whole time and kept adjusting, moving left and hooking it, which is what I do best. From that point on, it was just executing shots."

Along with advancing to Saturday's match play at the Pepsi Classic, Gramly will also compete in the season-ending Tour Championship after finishing qualifying in seventh place with a total of 4,963 pins. The combined qualifying totals for the Dallas Classic and Pepsi Classic (24 games) determined the 24 athletes advancing to the third and final major of the season.

Kovalova led the field for the Tour Championship, finishing with a 24-game total of 5,082, a 211.75 average. She was followed by McEwan (5,061), Coté (5,052), O'Keefe (5,004), and former McKendree bowler and current Maryville head coach Brandi Kordelewski of Belleville, Illinois (5,003).

McEwan is the 2015 Tour Championship winner, and O'Keefe won the season-ending major in 2017 and 2019. Defending champion Shannon Pluhowsky of Dayton, Ohio, qualified in eighth with a 4,948 total, and 2018 winner Maria José Rodriguez of Colombia finished 23rd with 4,813.

Pinfall will drop at the beginning of the Tour Championship, with all advancers bowling three eight-game blocks of round-robin match play Sunday and Monday. The top five competitors, based on total pinfall and bonus pins, will advance to Tuesday's stepladder finals.

The finals of the Tour Championship will be broadcast Tuesday at 7 p.m. Eastern on CBS Sports Network, with the winner earning the $50,000 top prize.

To learn more about the PWBA Tour, visit PWBA.com.

2022 PWBA Pepsi Classic
At USA Bowl
Dallas
 
Saturday's results
FINAL STANDINGS
1, Dasha Kovalova, Ukraine, 506 (two games), $10,000.
2, Danielle McEwan, Stony Point, N.Y., 195 (one game), $5,000.
3, Hope Gramly (n), Aubrey, Texas, 655 (three games), $3,500.
4, Tannya Lopez, Mexico, 203 (one game), $2,500.
5, Olivia Farwell, Elizabethtown, Pa., 171 (one game), $2,000.

STEPLADDER RESULTS
Match No. 1 – Gramly def. Farwell, 193-171.
Match No. 2 – Gramly def. Lopez, 246-203.
Semifinal – Kovalova def. Gramly, 228-216.
Championship – Kovalova def. McEwan, 278-195.

MATCH PLAY
(24 games, 30 bonus pins for a win, 15 bonus pins for a tie)
    1, Danielle McEwan, Stony Point, N.Y., 7-5-0, 5,482. 2, Dasha Kovalova, Ukraine, 8-3-1, 5,455. 3, Tannya Lopez, Mexico, 9-3-0, 5,335. 4(tie), Hope Gramly (n), Aubrey, Texas, 5-6-1, and Olivia Farwell, Elizabethtown, Pa., 6-6-0, 5,305.
DID NOT ADVANCE
     6, Shannon O'Keefe, Shiloh, Ill., 6-4-2, 5,298, $1,750. 7, Verity Crawley, England, 4-8-0, 5,273, $1,650. 8, Julia Bond, Aurora, Ill., 4-8-0, 5,201, $1,600. 9, Breanna Clemmer, Clover, S.C., 6-6-0, 5,200, $1,550. 10, Brandi Kordelewski, Belleville, Ill., 5-7-0, 5,176, $1,500. 11, Mary Orf (n), St. Louis, 6-6-0, 5,124, $1,450. 12, Kelly Kulick, Union, N.J., 4-8-0, 5,007, $1,400.

Friday's Results: 1, Hope Gramly (n), Aubrey, Texas, 2,666. 2, Julia Bond, Aurora, Ill., 2,643. 3, Danielle McEwan, Stony Point, N.Y., 2,638. 4, Dasha Kovalova, Ukraine, 2,636. 5, Verity Crawley, England, 2,613. 6, Shannon O'Keefe, Shiloh, Ill., 2,586.
      7, Brandi Kordelewski, Belleville, Ill., 2,578. 8, Kelly Kulick, Union, N.J., 2,559. 9, Breanna Clemmer, Clover, S.C., 2,549. 10, Olivia Farwell, Elizabethtown, Pa., 2,541. 11, Tannya Lopez, Mexico, 2,525. 12, Mary Orf (n), St. Louis, 2,523.

2022 PWBA Tour Championship
QUALIFYING (24 games)
     1, Dasha Kovalova, Ukraine, 5,082. 2, Danielle McEwan, Stony Point, N.Y., 5,061. 3, Bryanna Coté, Tucson, Ariz., 5,052. 4, Shannon O'Keefe, Shiloh, Ill., 5,004. 5, Brandi Kordelewski, Belleville, Ill., 5,003. 6, Verity Crawley, England, 4,969.
     7, Hope Gramly (n), Aubrey, Texas, 4,963. 8, Shannon Pluhowsky, Dayton, Ohio, 4,948. 9, Rocio Restrepo, Uniontown, Ohio, 4,937. 10, Birgit Noreiks, Germany, 4,934. 11, Stefanie Johnson, McKinney, Texas, 4,920. 12, Jillian Martin (n), Stow, Ohio, 4,914.
     13, Breanna Clemmer, Clover, S.C., 4,913. 14, Jordan Richard, Maumee, Ohio, 4,909. 15, Brianna Andrew, Grand Rapids, Mich., 4,903. 16, Stephanie Zavala, Downey, Calif., 4,891. 17, Clara Guerrero, Colombia, 4,888. 18, Kelly Kulick, Union, N.J., 4,880.
     19, Suzuna Miyagi, Japan, 4,864. 20, Kayla Pashina, Otsego, Minn., 4,859. 21, Julia Bond, Aurora, Ill., 4,818. 22, Laura Plazas (n), Bogota, 4,814. 23, Maria José Rodriguez, Colombia, 4,813. 24, Diana Zavjalova, Latvia, 4,796.
 
Portions of this release appear courtesy of Aaron Smith from USBC Communications