Erica Testa bests the field at Snookers to take First Place

Erica Testa and Samantha Barrett
The third stop of the Northern Lights Women’s Pool Tour took place at Snookers in Providence, Rhode Island on Sunday, June 28th 2015. The Northern Lights tour is a WPBA sanctioned qualifying tour for women of the New England region. Snookers is a fantastic venue with well­maintained tables, top­notch food, and a lively environment. Snookers is one of the best pool halls in New England, housing top pro player, Mike Dechaine! They graciously offered $400 added to entice women from around New England to compete! This was a double­elimination tournament with races to seven on the winner’s side and races to five on the loser’s side. The final championship match was a modified race to nine.
 
The play began on this rainy Sunday with Nicole Albergaria over Dianne Masters, Mandi Capps overtaking tournament director Pauline McGrath, Erica Testa over Jenn Sylvester, and Amanda Judkins over Samantha Barrett. The winner’s and loser’s brackets were set at this point and exciting play continued. On the winner’s side, Nicole bested Mandi to send her to the loser’s bracket. Erica then took down Amanda (7­4) and Nicole (7­2), sending both to the loser’s bracket and putting Erica in the hot seat, awaiting the results of the one­loss side. On that side, Samantha fought back to beat Connecticut players Aaron Haefele and the up and coming Jenn Sylvester. Pauline was sent packing by Dianne who then lost to Amanda. Samantha finished off the one­loss bracket by beating Mandi, Amanda, and Nicole (5­3) to meet up with Erica in the finals. Samantha fought hard and played solid pool all day, but there was no one who could take down the 2014 Tour Champion Erica Testa, who played lights out pool, won 9­6, and went undefeated for the day.