Vivian Villarreal - Photo courtesy of Joe Gonzalez
New York City- An American woman will be in the finals. After their quarter-finals wins, NYC's Jennifer Barretta and Texan Vivian Villarreal have ensured one USA player in the finals as they will face each other for the right to represent America in tomorrow's finale of the Andy Cloth Women's International Pool Championship. For Barretta, a win here would mark her first official pro career major win. For Villarreal, it would be her 20th international title of her career and first major win in over a decade. The pro tournament is the longest women's billiard event of any kind with 6 days of heavy pool action with a round robin event that evolves into a final single elimination chart where players will start out races to 10 in 10-Ball and eventually rise to races to 11,13, and 17 in the finals. All activities are taking place at Steinway Billiards Cafe and sponsored by Andy Cloth, J.Pechauer Cues , Viking Cues, Steinway Billiards. , Olhausen Balls, Pool & Billiard Magazine , the NAPL & Focused Apparel . Patron sponsors include Dr. Greg Diehl, Tom Gleich, and Dr. Michael Frank. Media partners include PKE Partners, IB Sports, NYC Grind, Gotham City Technologies, Nona Photography, and Charles Eames Photography. 7 days of live pool will be filmed and streamed by Inside Pool TV. Pay per view on www.Dragonpromotions.com for the live marquee matches Andy Cloth Women's International Pool Championship taking place December 16th-21st at the same venue. The Championship is sanctioned by the WPBA Women's Pocket Billiards Association.
Barretta would face Canadian #1 and former World Junior Champion Brittany Bryant in the quarters. Barretta kept the control in the match and eventually shut the Canadian down 11-7.
"I love this format. Playing the round robin felt like a month of practice was done in 3 days. And the long races now are huge and play to my strengths", said Barretta.
Villarreal had her hands full to the brim when upstart newbie Hiroko Makiyama of Japan managed to keep pace with the fast tootin Texan Tornado until the match reached 6-6. Makiyama, who won a qualifier to get into the event, missed a 10-Ball that would have given her the lead. Instead, the flood gates were opened and Villarreal quickly took over the match from there and won 11-6. "At 6-6 I missed an easy 10 ball and lost 11-6 lol!!! Still loved every minute of it. Thank you everyone!!", said an elated Makiyama who made her free qualifier entry stretch for miles.
Meanwhile on Villarreal's Facebook page, she has been counting down with updates stating "And then there was 8..." , "And then there was 4..." and we are sure her plan is to get to "and then there was 2 and one" . But she will have to face a confident Barretta next.
Either way America will win, and it is building up to be a great battle!
See all the brackets can be found and full schedule of play times at www.dragonpromotions.com
Action continues on Day 5 Single Elimination with this TV lineup that can be ordered on www.dragonpromotions.com
The Finals is scheduled for Sunday December 21 at 1:00pm. See right side buttons.
Day 5 TV Schedule Race to 11 Quarter Finals . Watch on www.dragonpromotions.com click 12/20 $15 for entire day
11:00am Vivian Villarreal USA vs Hiroko Makiyama JAPAN
1:15pm Ga Young Kim KOREA vs Helena Thornfeldt SWEDEN
3:30pm Naomi Williams CANADA vs Denise Wilkinson NEW ZEALAND
Semi-Finals Race to 13
6:00pm Villarreal/Makiyama vs Williams/Wilkinson
8:00pm Barretta USA/Bryant CAN vs Ga Young Kim/ Helena Thornfeldt
Follow the latest news and frequent updates on www.facebook.com/womensinternationalpool
