Courtesty of Bill Vint of PBA.com

NORTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Defending champion Bill O'Neill of Southampton, Pa., charged into the third round lead in the 68th Lumber Liquidators U.S. Open at Brunswick Zone-Carolier Thursday, hoping to turn a month of mourning into a week of celebration.  He is joined by three former SVSU Cardinals in the top 30.

O'Neill, who sat in fifth place after 12 games, fired games of 247, 214, 254, 266, 237 and 257 on the demanding U.S. Open lane condition during Thursday's third round to finish qualifying with 4,094 pins and a 103-pin lead over 2006 U.S. Open champion Tommy Jones of Simpsonville, S.C.

Norm Duke of Clermont, Fla., was in third place with 3,983 pins followed by Canadian citizen Dan MacLelland of Saginaw, Mich., at 3,944, and Chris Barnes of Double Oak, Texas, with 3,901 pins. Duke is the 2008 U.S. Open champion. Barnes won the event in 2005. MacLelland, who is finishing is final year of college at Saginaw Valley State University, is trying for his first professional title.

O'Neill, who won the Pepsi Viper Championship in October for his third career title, exercised his newly-discovered patience to advance into the lead.

“There are a lot of guys here who can have a good day, but stringing them together is the hard part,” O'Neill said. “I had a really good day. Whenever I hit the pocket, I struck, which is telling me my ball is doing the right thing.

“Basically I used the same ball for this same squad last year (in Indianapolis),” he continued. “I'm very confident right now. Things have been going well. Now that I've been around for a few years, I'm starting to figure things out.”

O'Neill admitted that he stumbled briefly Wednesday night when he started thinking about the recent death of his grandfather.

“Last night the first couple of games were a little rough,” he said. “My whole family was here. I started thinking about my grandfather who passed away the day we started bowling in the Tournament of Champions (in late January), so it was tough to get out of my own way for those couple of games. I was super close to my grandpop, so I'm trying not to think about him because I get a bit emotional. I'm trying to focus on my bowling, but I'm definitely dedicating this tournament to him.”

The field of 383 has been cut to the top 95 players for Friday morning's eight-game cashers' round. After the cashers' round, the top 24 will advance to the round-robin match play finals, bowling three eight-game rounds Friday night, Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon. ESPN2 will provide live coverage of Friday night's final two games of match play at 6 p.m. Eastern.

After a total of 50 games, the top six will advance to the stepladder finals which will begin with two matches live on ESPN2 Saturday at 10 p.m. Eastern. The No. 5 qualifier will bowl against the No. 6 qualifier, with the winner taking on the No. 4 player. Saturday's winner will join the top three finalists for Sunday's championship round at 3 p.m. Eastern on ESPN. First prize in the final major championship of the 2010-11 PBA Tour season is $80,000.

During U.S. Open week, pba.com's Xtra Frame video streaming service is providing more than 70 hours of live coverage of qualifying and match play rounds. To subscribe to Xtra Frame, visit pba.com and click on the Xtra Frame logo.

68TH LUMBER LIQUIDATORS U.S. OPEN 
Brunswick Zone-Carolier, North Brunswick, N.J., Thursday

THIRD ROUND (after 18 games; top 95 advance to cashers' round) 
1, Bill O'Neill, Southampton, Pa., 4,094. 
2, Tommy Jones, Greenville, S.C., 3,991. 
3, Norm Duke, Clermont, Fla., 3,983. 
4, Dan MacLelland, Saginaw, Mich., 3,944. 
5, Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas, 3,901. 
6, Mika Koivuniemi, Hartland, Mich., 3,886. 
7, Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill., 3,879. 
8, Matthew O'Grady, South Amboy, N.J., 3,878. 
9, Ryan Shafer, Horseheads, N.Y., 3,873. 
10, Joe Ciccone, Buffalo, N.Y., 3,869. 
11, Anthony LaCaze, Melrose Park, Ill., 3,858. 
12, E.J. Tackett, Huntington, Ind., 3,855. 
13, (tie) John Szczerbinski, North Tonawanda, N.Y., and Andres Gomez, Colombia, 3,849. 
15, Pete Weber, St. Ann, Mo., 3,839. 
16, Jason Belmonte, Australia, 3,838. 
17, Mike Fagan, Patchogue, N.Y., 3,826. 
18, (tie) Mike Wolfe, New Albany, Ind., and Danny Wiseman, Baltimore, 3,823. 
20, Fero Williams, Fairfield, Ohio, 3,817. 
21, John Furey, East Windsor, N.J., 3,810, $100. 
22, Martin Larsen, Sweden, 3,803. 
23, Scott Norton, Costa Mesa, Calif., 3,799. 
24, Jeff Carter, Springfield, Ill., 3,786. 
25, Eugene McCune, Munster, Ind., 3,785. 
26, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich., 3,783. 
27, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Ocala, Fla., 3,781. 
28, Alex Aguiar, Dartmouth, Mass., 3,779. 
29, Ildemaro Ruiz, Venezuela, 3,777. 
30, Ronnie Russell, Marion, Ind., 3,776.