Last year, Missy Bellinder needed only a mark in the tenth frame of her match with Kelly Kulick to advance to the third match of the USBC Queens Championship. She got up, threw what looked like a great shot, and left a pocket 7-10 split for a 212 to 220 loss. Kulick went on to win the next two matches and add the Queens title to her miraculous year of accomplishments.
Since then, Missy got married, worked hard on her game, and came back this year more determined than ever to win. Now Missy Parkin, she decisively beat two time U.S. Open champion and former Queens champion Kim Terrell-Kearney 235-172 and then defeated top seeded Elysia Current 214-189 to earn the championship, the tiara, and the $20,000 first prize.
The hard throwing right-hander had this to say about her victory in a USBC press relase posted on Bowl.com:
"After last year's show, I was pretty devastated, and for a while after that, every time I left the 7-10, I got angrier and angrier. But today, I definitely had a different mindset. I told myself I needed to throw 10 good shots every game, and that's all I could do. That was my plan all week, and it worked out well."
Congratulations to Missy Parkin on her 2011 Queens title. I have the feeling she's going to be a force to be reckoned with at the U.S. Open in Texas in June.
For all the results of this year's and last year's Queens tournament, click on here. Below is video of a brief interview with Parkin about her victory. And when video of the televised finals becomes available, I'll be posting it to this blog, so be sure to check back for it.
