Over the past five years, Dawn Fox has finished among the J.Pechauer Northeast Women's Tour's top 25 players, without winning a stop on the tour. Her only win on the tour came in April, 2007, at a BCA Qualifier in South Amboy, NJ. Last year, she finished 12th in tour rankings, on the basis of seven appearances. Her best finish came in 2013, when, on the basis of six appearances (finishing second, twice), she finished third in the tour rankings. On the weekend of October 15-16, she signed on to the 11th stop on the 2016 JPNEWT. On the basis of three appearances this year, she was 25th in the tour rankings when the tournament began. Though tour director and rankings leader, Linda Shea, would defeat her in the battle for the hot seat, Fox came back from the semifinals to defeat Shea, win only her second JPNEWT event, and advance well above the 25th slot she'd been in when the tournament started. The $500-added event drew a short field of 16 entrants to Marley's Billiards in Norristown, PA.
Fox's path to the hot seat went through Joy McFeaters 7-4, and Kathy Friend 7-5 before coming up against Christina Madrigale in a winners' side semifinal. Shea, in the meantime, had downed Katie Derosato 7-2, and Collen Shoop in a shutout, to face Kia Sidbury, who came into the tournament as the tour's fifth-ranked player. Two completely different kinds of matches led to the hot seat. As Fox was busy shutting out Madrigale, Shea and Sidbury locked up in a double hill fight that eventually sent Shea to meet Fox. Shea claimed the hot seat 7-5 and waited on Fox's return.
On the loss side, Madrigale picked up McFeaters, who, following her earlier loss to Fox, had won three straight double hill matches against Melissa Jenkins, Colleen Shoop, and Sharon O'Hanlon. Sidbury drew Friend, who'd defeated Lisa Soli 7-1 and Judie Wilson 7-3 to reach her. McFeaters downed Madrigale 7-4, and in the quarterfinals, faced Friend, who'd eliminated Sidbury in a double hill match.
McFeaters' four-match, loss-side streak came to an end in the quarterfinals, as Friend (some friend!) defeated her 7-2. Fox, though, ended Friend's four-match, loss-side run 7-3 in the semifinals. Fox completed her first victory on the JPNEWT since 2007 with a 9-5 win over Shea in the finals.
