The stepladder finals for the United States Bowling Congress Masters – the PBA Tour’s second major of the 2014 season – will be telecast live on ESPN Sunday at 3 p.m. ET from Brunswick Zone Carolier in North Brunswick, N.J.

Reigning Masters champion and current PBA Player of the Year Jason Belmonte will be trying to make one of the stepladder finals spots by advancing through the demanding double-elimination match play rounds this week.

Belmonte, who won the Barbasol PBA Tournament of Champions in January for his second major title, won the 2013 Masters for his first major title, defeating 2013 U.S. Open champion Wes Malott, 258-245, in the title match.

Successfully defending the Masters title has proven to be an extremely difficult task in the 63-year history of the tournament. It's only happened twice and not since 1965. Billy Welu won the event in 1964 and 1965, while Dick Hoover was the first to win consecutive titles in 1956 and 1957.

PBA’s online bowling channel, Xtra Frame, will cover all qualifying and match play rounds as they happen, Tuesday through Saturday. To subscribe to the PBA’s official online bowling channel, visit pba.com and click on the Xtra Frame link. One-month ($7.99) and full-year ($64.99) subscriptions are available.

Following Sunday’s live Masters telecast, PBA League quarterfinal action returns to ESPN on Sunday, March 2, at 3 p.m. ET when Chris Hardwick’s Silver Lake Atom Splitters presented by Spiceworks (Chris Barnes, Dom Barrett, Tommy Jones, Wes Malott, Bryon Smith) takes on Terrell Owens’ Dallas Strikers presented by the USBC (Norm Duke, Mike Machuga, Amleto Monacelli, Dave Wodka, Rhino Page) from Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park, Mich.