Dana Aft
In 2013, Dana Aft was defeated by Crystal Lloyd in the battle for the hot seat at the 1st Annual South Carolina Women's 9-Ball Championship, held under the auspices of Belinda Calhoun's Tiger Southern Mid-Atlantic Regional Tour (SMART). Janet Atwell then defeated Aft in the semifinals, and went on to win the tournament. This year, in the 2nd Annual event, Aft, once again, found herself on the loss side; this time, a little earlier. This time, though, she won five on the loss side and successfully challenged Tour Director Belinda Calhoun in the finals to claim the top prize. The $500-added event drew 14 entrants to Grady's Billiards in Lexington, SC.
"We started the Tiger SMART Tour last year," said Calhoun, "because there wasn't a ladies tournament in the Carolinas.
"We had four stops in 2013," she added of the tour, which takes in both Carolinas, as well as Georgia, "and after this first one, have five more planned for this year."
Calhoun worked her way into the hot seat at this event, after defeating Beverly Knight and Betty Lea, both 7-3. Lea, after sending Aft to the losers' bracket 7-2, survived a double hill battle against Wendy Kinzer, before falling to Calhoun in the battle for the hot seat.
Aft opened up her loss-side campaign with back-to-back, 7-3 wins over Lisa Cossette and Marianne Merrill, which set her up to face Knight. Kinzer, in the meantime, drew Crystal Lloyd, who'd gotten by Melody Duvall, double hill, and Cheryl Pritchard 7-4.
A replay of last year's hot seat match (Aft vs. Lloyd) was set up when Aft downed Knight 7-2 and Lloyd eliminated Kinzer 7-5. Aft feasted on her cold dish of revenge in the quarterfinals, ending Lloyd's day 7-3 and then feasted on a somewhat warmer dish by downing Lea in a double hill semifinal.
"That match could have gone either way," said Aft of the semifinals. "She (Lea) over-ran her shape on the 9-ball in that last game."
Aft brought some momentum into the finals; a single, race-to-9. She defeated Calhoun 9-3 to claim the 2nd Annual South Carolina Women's Championship.
"It was a good field," said Aft of the general competition. "It was a small field, but very, very tough; a lot of quality players."
