Team USA selects squad for World Womens Championships

With 72 combined career professional titles, Team USA will send its most seasoned team to the World Tenpin Bowling Association World Women's Championships. The biennial event will be held July 27-Aug. 2 in Las Vegas.
Lynda Barnes and Stefanie Nation, who each competed in the past two World Championships, will be joined by professional veterans Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, Liz Johnson, Kim Terrell-Kearney and Wendy Macpherson as Team USA seeks its first team gold medal in more than 20 years.
In recent years, Team USA has closed in on the gold medal but came up just short. They finished second to Malaysia in 2007 by seven pins and in 2005 were runner-up to Chinese Taipei by 12 pins.
"We've had really talented teams in the past, but the ability for us to add professional bowlers for the first time is really a huge boost for us," said Barnes, who has been on Team USA a record 12 times. "I think it's pretty obvious we have the physical ability, now it's a matter of getting the job done on the lanes."
The United States will be joined by 51 other countries in the quest to win medals not only in the five-player team event but also singles, doubles, trios, all-events and Masters. The World Women's Championships will take place on 60 specially constructed lanes inside Cashman Center in Las Vegas following the conclusion of the 2009 USBC Open Championships.
In the other selections, Tennelle Milligan was picked to compete in the 2009 QubicaAMF World Cup in Melaka, Malaysia, from Nov. 14-21.
Barnes, Dorin-Ballard, Terrell-Kearney, Shannon O'Keefe, Diandra Asbaty and Shannon Pluhowsky will represent the United States at the 2009 Pan American Bowling Confederation Championships in San Juan, Puerto Rico, from Sept. 20-27.
Nation also will compete in the World Games from July 20-22 in Kaohsiung, Chinese Taipei, a selection that had been previously announced.