Ashley Rice
The WPBA Tiger SMART Tour staged the 5th Annual WPBA South Carolina State 9-Ball Championship May 20-21, 2017 at Palace Billiards in Greenville, SC. Many thanks to owner, Mike Sijon, for opening his room to host the event. Palace Billiards is a new venue for Tiger SMART and it is safe to say, will be a permanent venue for the tour. Sijon commented, “The girls are terrific; so well dressed and congenial.”
Format was two, six person, round robins, race to seven, with the top two finishers of each bracket playing a single elimination semi-final and race to nine final. Five rounds of group play began and was completed on Saturday. Bracket one results were: Ashley Rice 4-0; Tiffany Stidham 2-2 with a games won/games lost record of 25-20; Marianne Merrill 2-2/21-18; Cheryl Pritchard 2-2/21-23; and Audra Mozee 0-4. Bracket two results were: Belinda Calhoun 3-1/24-18; Debbie Teichert 3-1/24-22; Lisa Cossette 2-2/23-21; Betty Lea 2-2/22-21; and Julie Stephens 0-4.
On Sunday, the semi-finals were played by Debbie Teichert, who was having a fantastic tournament with her only loss in group play was to Calhoun and who has shown tremendous improvement over the past year and up and coming future star, Ashley Rice. Rice continued her unbeaten streak for a trip to the finals. The other semi-final was contested by Tiffany Stidham, back from child birth and Belinda Calhoun. At 5-6 Stidham played a great safety on the seven-ball. Calhoun kicks in the seven and had a shot on the nine for the win.
Rice played solid, was consistent, and took advantage of her opportunities, always a winning formula as evidenced by her 9-3 victory and a perfect 6-0 record for the weekend. Congratulations to Ashley Rice for a stellar performance the entire tournament. Rice not only captured the title but has won the opportunity to play in the next WPBA Pro event.
Many thanks to Tiger SMARTs sponsors: Tiger Products, Ozone Billiards, Simonis, Aramith, and Quick-Clean for helping to make dreams come true.
