The New York City KingPins are owned by Billie Jean King and she was on the bench cheering every shot of the inaugural PBA League championship match. With Billie Jean King cheering the KingPins bowled a string of seven consecutive strikes to defeat the Motown Muscle, 440-407, and claim the Elias Cup.

The tournament was a Baker format contest, where each of the five team member bowls two frames to complete a game. Momentum shifted towards the KingPins when the two teams switched lanes after five frames. The KingPins didn’t miss in their final five frames on the left lane. Consecutive strikes by Tommy Jones, John Szczerbinski, Scott Norton and freshly-crowned Barbasol PBA Tournament of Champions winner Pete Weber locked up the title for King’s team.

After throwing the decisive strike in the 10th frame, Weber benched himself and brought in KingPins’ supplemental draft pick Kelly Kulick to finish off the match. Kelly was the only woman in the PBA League field and more than held her own as she threw two more strikes to conclude the contest.

“We knew the Muscle had to come back on the right lane after five frames and they hadn’t bowled on that lane in 10 frames,” Weber said. “We ate up some oil and they just didn’t make the adjustments.

“My team is the best team. I knew from the start we were going to be hard to beat,” he added. “We started communicating in Detroit and I knew at that point we were going to be something special.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to have Billie Jean King as our team owner,” Weber continued, “and it’s an honor and a privilege to give her the first Elias Cup trophy.”

King, who admitted she doesn’t know a great deal about bowling, was an avid cheerleader for her team. “I was so calm playing tennis, but I was not so calm watching today,” she said. “I was dying. The match was so close."

“I loved my team right from the start,” King added. “I watched them on ESPN; I even watched one match on a Jet Blue flight, but I could tell they worked together great. I was very happy to be here for the finals."

“I love it; it’s exactly what I believe in. If you watch a World Team Tennis match, you’ll see my philosophy on life: it’s men and women working together, because we’re in this world together and we have to help each other.” After such a great competition everyone is really looking forward to what the PBA League might have in store for the future!