 Marina Linguerri defeated Jeanette Lee |
Day one of this event was eventful as always. Strong showing by the seeded players says that everybody was on their game today. Nevertheless, there were a few surprises, at least one of them, a big surprise.
Round 1
The first round of the day had one surprise in that Canadian Cathy Metzinger defeated
BCA Hall of Famer Ewa Laurance 9-7. Val Finnie and Sueyen Rhee went hill-hill before
Val pulled out the win. Melissa Little won her first round due to airline complications for
Jennifer Chen. Jennifer missed the first round, but arrived in time for the second round.
Other winners were Ford, Minerich, Sakai, Kostanian and Rousey.
Round 2
Round 2 was won by all seeded players. All the seeded players in this round won with
fairly strong showings. Janet Atwell and Lisa D'Atri went at it before Janet won the
match 9-7, and Laura Smith defeated Morgan Steinman 9-6 in the other close match of
the round. Leslie Anne Rogers was also affected by the bad weather across the country
this week and flights forced her to miss the competition completely, which gave Angel
Paglia and automatic bye to the next round.
Round 3
The biggest surprise of the tournament came out of round 3. In her first WPBA Classic
event Marina Linguerri had to be excited to draw the famous Jeanette Lee as her first
professional match. With little prospect for a win, Marina threw everything she had at
Jeanette and just like the little train that could made it to the top of the hill. The match
stood at hill-hill with Marina looking hard at a combo shot on the 9 using the two ball,
she went for it and hit the shot perfectly. Not a bad way to start your first WPBA event.
Other matches went to seeded players with a close match between Irish Julie Kelly and Racheal Abbink ending in a Kelly win at 9-7
Round 4
Round 4 again went to all seeded players. More than any other round the seeded players
were extremely strong in this round. Winners included Pan, White, Webb, Villarreal,
Ellerby, Nelson, Corr, and Shaw.
Round 5
No upsets from round 5, but almost had a big one. Allison Fisher and Liz Ford went hill-
hill. The final match was a defensive battle with Liz taking a big chance with a combo
on the nice. Liz missed the combo, but hooked Allison and left her with no shot. Back
and forth again until Liz “topped” the cueball and left Allison with a easy shot. Allison
ran the table from that point. Liz almost pulled off a big win, and Allison had to be
happy to get out of the match on the winners side of the bracket.
Marina Linguerri, after enjoying such a big win over Jeanette Lee, had a tough time with Cathy Metzinger. Cathy was able to defeat Marina 9-5. The remainder of the winners were, Hofstatter, Kelly, Kim, Herndon, Fisher, Thornfeldt.
Round 6
Solid wins this round for Pan and Villarreal, but as usual as the night got later the
matches got hotter and closer. White and Calhoun went 9-7, Webb and Hines went 9-5,
and Ellerby vs Rim ended with the same score. Karen Corr vs Angel Paglia and Kim
Shaw vs Janet Atwell 9-6 in both cases. One of the best matches of the night was Tiffany
Nelson and Dawn Hopkins. The match went hill-hill with Dawn Hopkins pulling out the
win.
Photo courtesy of Roberta Case
