Last year, at just about this time, Noelle Tate (13) placed 4th at the first stop of the 2022 JIC series in the 13U Girls division. She would go on to place 3rd three times at stops #3, #6 & #8 and finish third in the overall rankings of that division. She also finished 6th in the 18U Girls division and in the 18U Girls Championships in November at the International Open, she defeated her older sister, Bethany, in the semifinals and finished second to Sofia Mast. A little over two weeks later (Dec. 17-18), that same scenario played out at the independent “When the Smoke Clears” 20U Girls division event at Wolf’s Den in Roanoke; Noelle downing her sister Bethany in the semifinals and then being defeated by Mast in those event finals. Competition has led Noelle Tate and Mast to become, in the lingo of their age group, “besties.”
Like her brother, Joey, Noelle came to the season-opening event of the 2023 JIC season and made a statement. Coming from the loss side in the 13U Girls division (8 entrants), she avenged a defeat at the hands of Arianna Houston in the battle for the hot seat and following a successful semifinal, defeated Houston in the finals to claim the event title. She also competed in the 18U Girls division, where she was initially defeated by 3rd place finisher, Precilia Kinsley in the opening round and in her first loss-side match, fell victim to her older sister, Bethany in what had to have been an interesting, family-dynamic, double-hill battle.
In the 13U Girls event, Noelle got by Raylee Graves 7-1 and Skylynn Elliott 7-4 to arrive at the hot seat match. Houston downed Franki Spain 7-5 and Skylar Hess, double hill, to join her. Houston and Tate locked up in a double hill fight that eventually did send Tate to the semifinals.
On the loss side, Hess, after her defeat at the hands of Houston, eliminated Kelli Banks 7-1 and Elliott 7-5 to draw Tate in the semifinals. Tate earned her re-match against Houston with a 7-5 semifinal victory over Hess in those semifinals.
In an extended race-to-9, Tate and Houston battled back and forth to their second straight double hill match. Tate won it to claim the season-opening 13U Girls title.
Hayden Ernst
Ernst goes undefeated to claim 2023 opening event of 13U Boys division
Hayden Ernst took full advantage of the absence of Eddie Vondereau in the 13U Boys division this past weekend and went undefeated through a field of 12 entrants to claim the season opening division title. Ernst was not exactly the ‘mouse’ that played when the ‘cat’ was away, because he’d won two of the five 2022 JIC 13U Boys events in which he competed last year and finished 4th in the division rankings. He was sort of another vigilant ‘cat’ that this past weekend’s 13U Boys field had to contend with. Vonderau had won four of the five he competed in last year and finished at the top of those rankings (ahead of, in order, Jas Makhani, Deke Squier and Ernst). Vondereau did not compete in the 13U Boys division at this season opening stop, but he was runner-up to Joey Tate in the 18U Boys division.
The other two competitors, ahead of him in last year’s rankings, did compete in this 12-entrant, 13U Boys season opener, but Ernst didn’t have to face either of them. Ernst didn’t give up more than two racks before he’d advanced to a winners’ side semifinal against D’Angelo “Jawz” Spain who chalked up five against him. Ernst advanced to the hot seat match, where he faced Jas Makhani, who’d defeated Colston Harrelston 7-4 to join him. Ernst claimed the hot seat 7-5 over Makhani and waited on the return of what turned out to be “Jawz.”
On the loss side, “Jawz” trip back to the finals began with a double hill fight against Tanner McKinney. With that out of the way, in the quarterfinals “Jawz” faced Harrelston, who’d defeated Marlin Foster 7-5 to reach him.
“Jawz” gave up only three racks in his quarterfinal battle against Harrelston and while Jas Makhani put up a one-game-away-from-double-hill fight in the semifinals, “Jawz” prevailed for a shot against Ernst, waiting for him in the hot seat.
Ernst and “Jawz” fought a double hill fight for the 13U Boys title. Ernst won it to claim his first, though likely not his last, 2023 JIC title.
If North Carolina’s Joey Tate had a notion to begin his third year as a junior competitor on the Junior International Championships’ (JIC) series of events with some sort of statement, he accomplished that objective well. In the first event of the 2023 JIC season, held this past weekend (Jan. 13-15) at Wolf’s Den in Roanoke, VA, he went undefeated through the 18U Boys division and came from the loss side to claim the ProAm division event; both drew 29 entrants. Skylar Hess, in the meantime, did much the same thing in the 18U Girls division (10 entrants), her ‘statement’ amounting to an undefeated run through the field to claim the first 2023 JIC title in that division and ending a streak of eight appearances in 2022 without a win. In all (with some crossover between different divisions and the gender/age-neutral ProAm division), the JIC season opener drew 88 entrants to Wolf’s Den.
We will cover the two 13U divisions in a separate report, though for now, we’ll report that Hayden Ernst went undefeated to claim the 13U Boys Division and Noelle Tate (Joey’s younger sister) came from the loss side (defeated in the hot seat) for a rematch against Arianna Houston and won the 13U Girls Division.
As Joey Tate and his perennial rival in these JIC events over the past two years (Landon Hollingsworth) came to the tables this past weekend, it’s likely that beyond their singular, cliched task of “taking it one game/match at a time” and “playing the table, not your opponent,” they had a portion of their sights set on the end-of-the-year 18U Boys Championship, an invitational event that plays out during the International Open in Norfolk, VA. Pitting the top players in thedivision at the end of each season each other, the inaugural 18U Boys Championship was won by Hollingsworth and Tate claimed the title last November. Though at this stage of the literal game, it’s a little early to be thinking about that, it’s hard to imagine that given their relatively short-history rivalry, they’re not thinking about that eventual ‘rubber match’ in the third 18U Boys Championship in November, at least once in a while.
In fact, it probably crossed their minds when they met for the first and only time in the opening round of the 18U Boys event, when Tate sent Hollingsworth to the loss side 7-3. They are, by the way, separated by only three Fargo Rate points; Tate, 700 and Hollingsworth, 697. Tate advanced and ran right into Landon Hollingsworth’s brother, Cameron, who battled him to double hill before Tate finished the match, eventually advancing to the hot seat against Nathan Nunes, who, on his journey to the winners’ side final, had defeated the other eventual finalist, Eddie Vonderau. Tate claimed the hot seat 7-2 over Nunes.
On the loss side, Vondereau downed Cameron Hollingsworth 7-5, Hunter Zayas, double hill and Niko Konkel to draw Landon Hollingsworth. Hollingsworth, after his opening round loss to Tate, had embarked on a five-match winning streak that had recently eliminated Logan Whitaker, double hill and Brent Worth in a shutout. His streak came to end when Vondereau defeated him 7-2 in the quarterfinals. Vondereau and Nunes engaged in a spirited semifinal, in which Vondereau edged out in front at the end to win 7-5. Joey Tate was taking no prisoners, as he completed his undefeated run by allowing Vondereau only a single rack in the finals to claim the event title.
Sklyar Hess
In the absence of one, Hess gets by two JIC opponents who finished ahead of her in 2022
Though she failed to win a JIC event in 2022, Skylar Hess was runner-up, twice; to Bethany Tate in Stop #3 and Sofia Mast in Stop # 7. Tate finished at the top of the series’ 2022 rankings, with Mast in 2nd place. Precilia Kinsley finished third in those rankings. Mast and Hess, in the first two years of the JIC, had created a rivalry dynamic similar to Hollingsworth/Tate in the 18U Boys division. Mast, though, was not present at this most recent 18U Girls event. Though present, Tate finished in 4th place and did not face Hess. Precilia Kinsley did.
Kinsley worked her way through Bethany Tate’s younger sister, Noelle and sent Hess’ eventual opponent in the finals, Courtney Hairfield to the loss side 7-5 in a winners’ side semifinal. Hess downed Hayleigh Marion and Sabrina Long to join her in the hot seat match. Hess claimed it 7-4.
Hairfield moved to the loss side and downed Marion in a double hill fight and eliminated Bethany Tate in the quarterfinals 7-2. Hairfield and Kinsley came within a game of double hill before Hairfield prevailed 7-5 to face Hess in the finals. In an extended race-to-9, Hairfield and Hess also came within a game of double hill before Hess pulled out in front to claim the title 9-7.
Tate and Hollingsworth square off in winners’ side semifinal of ProAm event
The marquee matchup of J. Tate v. L. Hollingsworth happened twice in the gender/age-neutral ProAm division of the JIC’s opening weekend. They split them, while the order in which the two matches were played proved to be significant.
They met in a winners’ side semifinal, while Nathan Nunes and Dustin Muir met in the other one. Hollingsworth sent Tate to the loss side 7-5 and was joined in the hot seat match Nunes, who’d defeated Muir 7-3. There are very few so-called surprises in the world of pool at any level, especially when two opponents are somewhat evenly matched. Hollingsworth entered the hot seat match with a Fargo Rate 59 points higher than Nunes (697-638). But it was Hollingsworth who moved to the semifinals, when Nunes claimed the hot seat 7-5.
The loss-side battles for advancement to the quarterfinals featured two, double hill matches; Tate versus Nathan Childress and Dustin Muir against Jas Makhani. Tate defeated Childress, as Muir eliminated Makhani. Tate earned his rematch against Hollingsworth with a 7-5 victory over Muir in those quarterfinals.
Surprise, surprise! The semifinal was a fight to the finish, known in the pool world as a double hill match. The three-point Fargo Rate differential gave Tate a slight edge in terms of probability, but it wasn’t one that you’d have been likely to have gotten any great odds, either way.
Tate advanced to the finals over Hollingsworth and (surprise, surprise) locked up in a second straight double hill battle, with the event title on the line. He claimed it 9-8 over Nunes to chalk up his first of two 2023 JIC titles on the same weekend.
