Kim Jones, Jing Liu, Melissa Rushton and TD Chris Rogers
It was kind of a “hello/goodbye” situation.
On the weekend of Dec. 11-12, the North American Women’s Pool Association (NWPA) returned to the tables after a year-plus hiatus, courtesy of the pandemic. It returned with a new President – Stephanie Drakulic (née Hefner) – who, immediately upon recognizing that 2021 was actually the tour’s 20th anniversary (Sept., 2001), decided that the tour would celebrate that anniversary in style.
“I knew I wanted a kick-ass banquet with delicious food,” she wrote in a Facebook post of her thoughts when she ascended to the presidency of the tour in early 2020. “I wanted a big turnout. A HUGE celebration!”
“And then,” she added, “COVID hit and laughed at me for making plans.”
In June of this year, she detected a “shift,” as mask mandates were reduced and vaccination availability was widespread. Her desire for a 20th anniversary celebration had survived and she started making plans, which culminated in the Dec. 11-12, $550-added event that was, in effect, the only event of the year and thus, the season opener and finale, simultaneously. The event drew 33 entrants to Golden Fleece Billiards in Everett, WA.
For the winner, it was kind of a “hello”/“I’m back” situation. Jing Liu went undefeated through the field, chalking up her first (recorded) win anywhere since she’d won the NWPA’s 5th Annual Martha Hartsell Memorial, back in April, 2015, downing Liz Cole in the finals. Half of Liu’s six opponents in the most recent event forced a single, deciding match against her, including the last one, when she and Melissa Rushton battled for the title.
Liu and Rushton advanced through the field to arrive at their winners’ side semifinal matches. Rushton, who’d just sent the aforementioned Liz Cole to the loss side, faced Nicole Donisi, while Liu squared off against the aforementioned new President of the NWPA, Stephanie Drakulic.
Both matches for advancement to the hot seat match went double hill. Rushton played her first of two double hill matches in the event, sending Donisi to the loss side, while Liu played her second double hill match and sent Drakulic west. In their first of two, Liu claimed the hot seat 7-4 over Rushton and waited on her return.
On the loss side, Donisi picked up Suzanne Smith, who’d lost a winners’ side quarterfinal to Drakulic and then downed Tamre Rogers 6-2 and Andy Camping 6-3. Drakulic drew Cassie Francois, who’d lost her opening match to Rushton and was working on a six-match, loss-side winning streak that had recently eliminated Jo Woodward 6-4 and Kim Jones 6-3.
The potential Smith/Drakulic rematch did not happen. Smith got by Donisi 6-3, but Francois advanced one more step, downing Drakulic 6-4. Smith put an end to Francois’ loss-side trip 6-4 in the quarterfinals, only to have her own loss-side journey halted by Rushton 6-3 in the semifinals. Befitting the occasion, the “hello/goodbye” season opener and finale, along with the 20th anniversary of the tour ended with a double hill match, won by Liu to claim the title.
Drakulic and tour director Chris Rogers thanked the ownership and staff at Golden Fleece Billiards for their hospitality, as well as sponsors BCA Pool League’s Players Club Limited, Coava Coffee, OX Billiards, Robin Dreyer Billiards Instruction, Jam Up Apparel and Nicole Donisi Designs for her graphic arts work associated with an overhaul of NWPA designs for the tour’s flyers.
“Getting to compete alongside and with so many fantastic players is an honor and a privilege,” wrote President Drakulic on her Facebook page after the event. “Getting to be a part of this tour and help guide it and push it forward, is one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.”
“I love the NWPA,” she added, “and I love being a part of an organization with so much history and dedication to growing women’s pool.”
According to Drakulic, the full schedule of NWPA events for 2022 is still a work in progress. Check back with the AZBilliards calendar where that schedule will be posted as soon as it becomes available. Questions may be directed to NWPA’s e-mail account at playnwpa@gmail.com.
Bethany Sykes (photo courtesy of NAPT – Playnapt.com)
Prior to her start and victory at the $5,000-added North American Pool Tour’s 3rd Annual Division II Championships, held from February 21-24 at Bullshooters in Phoenix, AZ, Bethany Sykes had only one major victory on her brief, two-year, four-event, cash payout resume; two of those payouts were earned on the J. Pechauer Northeast Womens’ Tour (JPNEWT) and two, including the only victory, came on the Action Pool Tour (APT), where, this past November, she won the Virginia State Ladies 8-Ball Championships. It should be noted that the Ladies’ VA State 8-Ball event featured a field of only five entrants, although as they say, a win is a win is a win. For Sykes, though, the NAPT Div. II Championships were her “first big tournament” and the win was like gravy on a main meal of just being thrilled to be there and the four-day joy of participation.
“It was an incredible feeling,” she said of her first impressions, “just to be there with that many women in the room (64 entrants).”
“It was an awesome experience,” she went on to say, noting that it was her first time playing in a round robin event, and the first time she’d ever had to deal with a shot clock. “I found that the 30 seconds gave me no time for indecision about what could go wrong. There was no thinking about anything but the shot.”
As her resume indicates, she’s only been playing the sport competitively for the past couple of years, although she says she’s been in love with the game since she was about nine years old. She got her first cue when she was 16 and now, at 31, she’s crossed a big threshold and won her first major tournament. Her appearances on the JPNEWT and APT over the last year or two helped her to identify and improve some of the basics to which she had not been exposed previously.
“I never knew where to put my feet,” she said of her early attempts to develop a stance. “I got a lesson from Karen Corr about five months ago, and she told me where to put my feet.”
With her feet sorted out, Sykes joined 63 other women from seven regional ladies pool tours at these Division II Championships; six from the United States and four women from a ladies tour out of Quebec. The most heavily represented tour among the seven was the Texas-based Jerry Olivier Pool Tour (JO), with 14 entrants, about 22% of the field. The Northwest Women’s Pool Association (NWPA) was next with 12, followed by the ‘hometown’ Arizona Women’s Billiards Tour (AWBT), which had 11. The West Coast Women’s Tour (WCWT) sent 9. The JPNEWT contributed 8 (including Sykes), the North Central Pool Tour (NCPT) checked in with 6, while four women represented the ‘Circuit de Billard Feminine du Quebec.’
They broke up into eight round robin flights of eight players each, beginning on Thursday, February 21. Sykes, in Group Two, representing the JPNEWT, was paired with a primarily West Coast field; Cassie Francois and Elaine Eberly from the NWPA, Ginger Bowen from the WCWT, Jaye Succo and Leandra Gaff from the AWBT, Tam Trinh from the JO and Marilou Therrien from the Canadian league.
Sykes opened her campaign at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday morning with a 5-2 win over Francois. In round two, she got by Eberly 4-2 and then, in the final match of the opening day, she survived a double hill fight (4-3) against Trinh, which would prove to be highly significant later. As measured by total games won, she was the ‘flight’ leader at the end of that first day, with 13 games won. Gaff, Trinh and Therrien were second with 12 each.
Day two didn’t start out as well. Succo defeated her 5-2. Though Gaff and Therrien had been defeated, as well in the fourth round, Trinh downed Bowen 5-2, putting her out in front (by game points) 17-15.
“In that morning match (on the second day),” said Sykes, “(Succo) came out on fire. And from being ahead by one, I was all of a sudden behind by two games.”
Sykes survived a double hill (4-3) battle against Therrien in round 5, as Trinh lengthened her game lead by one more, with a 5-2 defeat of Eberly. With the game score between them now at 22-19, in favor of Trinh, they both chalked up 5-2 wins; Sykes over Bowen and Trinh over Succo. The game score between Sykes and Trinh was now at 27-24, with a single match to play.
Since the top four in each flight would advance to a 32-player, double elimination bracket, Sykes’ advancement at that point, short of being shut out or winning only a single game in the final match, was pretty much assured. Sykes sealed the deal with a 6-1 victory over Gaff that left her with 30 total wins. When Trinh fell to Francois 5-2 in that final round, she ended up with 29 total wins, allowing Sykes, by a single win (reflected in their earlier match), to enter the double elimination phase as the winner of her individual flight.
Heather Cortez, from the AWBT, with 37 total wins in her round robin flight was the top winner in her flight as well as the overall winner of the round robin phase of the event. Other top winners from the individual round robin flights were Michelle Cortez, from the Jerry Olivier Tour, in second place overall with 36 total wins. Susan Williams, with 35, from the AWBT was third. Suzanne Smith, from the NWPA, was fourth with 34, Natalie Chabot (from Canada) and Sykes’ eventual opponent in the hot seat and finals, Kim Pierce from the JO, were tied for fifth with 33 wins each. Yang Liu from the West Coast Women’s Tour was sixth with 31 total wins. Though she’d enter the double elimination phase of the event as the winner of her flight, Sykes was last among the individual flight winners advancing to the final two days of the event. Advancement to the double elimination rounds guaranteed all 32 participants at least of the share of the total $11,400 prize package.
“The Round Robin was so scary,” she said. “Every single game mattered. I grew from the experience, though. That Round Robin hardened me.”
Seven down, seven to go.
Over the next two days, Sykes played seven more matches; four on the winners’ side, one on the loss side, and two in the double elimination final. None were against the opponents she’d faced in her own round robin flight, one was against the overall winner of the round robin phase of the event (Heather Cortez) and three were against Pierce.
To get into their first match together, Sykes and Pierce would eventually, in the two winners’ side semifinals, have to get by two AWBT opponents. Sykes opened her winners’ side campaign on Saturday morning, February 23, against Gigi Callejas from the West Coast Women’s Tour, downing her 7-3. She followed that with victories over Jennifer Kraber (JO) 7-3 and then, defeated the overall round robin winner, AWBT’s Heather Cortez 7-4, to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal match against a formidably more experienced opponent, another AWBT entrant, Bernie Store. Pierce, in the meantime, had defeated Nicole Donisi from the NWPA 7-3, both Janna Nelson (7-5) and Khanh Ngo (7-3) from the West Coast Women’s Tour and arrived at her winners’ side semifinal match against yet another AWBT entrant, Susan Williams.
Sykes and Pierce got into the hot seat match with identical 7-5 wins over Store and Williams. In their first of three, Pierce claimed the hot seat in a double hill match.
“I got on the hill and things just fell apart,” said Sykes of that hot seat match, “and I couldn’t get it back together.”
On the loss side, Store picked up Ngo, who, following her defeat at the hands of Pierce, had defeated Stephanie Hefner 7-2, and survived a double hill match against Michelle Cortez. Williams drew Heather Cortez, who, following her defeat at the hands of Sykes, had shut out Kelly Jones and eliminated Tam Trinh 7-5.
Heather Cortez and Williams locked up in a double hill fight that eventually advanced Cortez to the quarterfinals. She was joined by Ngo, who’d defeated Store 7-4. Cortez and Ngo had faced each other on the opening day of the round robin matches, with Cortez winning that battle 5-2. This time, in the quarterfinals, it was Ngo who came out on top, winning it 7-5.
Sykes, though, having so unexpectedly, but joyfully arrived at this spot in her “first big tournament” was in no mood to let it go. She downed Ngo 7-2 in those semifinals and turned for a second and, necessary in a double elimination format, third shot at Pierce in the hot seat. They locked up in their second straight double hill battle in the opening set, but this time, it was Sykes coming out of it with the win. She completed her 12-2 run with a decisive 7-2 win over Pierce in the second set.
“People tell me I have no sense of tension,” said Sykes. “I always feel as though I’m in the right place at the right time. That was what made the whole thing exciting.”
“I went out there to get into the top four,” she added. “That was my goal as soon as I read about the tour. This was my first opportunity to get to that level and I spent the week before, imagining what it would be like; thinking of how I’d be telling my Dad about it afterwards.”
Exactly one week later, on the first weekend in March, Sykes rejoined her JPNEWT comrades, competing on the tour’s season opener at Triple Nines in Elkridge, MD. In a field of 22, Sykes had the misfortune of running into tour director Linda Shea, who defeated her in the opening round. She’d win two on the loss side before finishing in the tie for 9th place when she was defeated by Sharon O’Hanlon.
And so it goes, in the world of the emerging amateur into the world of the best in pool. Up one day, down the next. She remains somewhat in awe of her “first big tournament” win and is looking ahead at better things to come. She expects, looking ahead to competing at the Super Billiards Expo’s Women’s Pro 9-Ball event, her first shot at the Pro level, to continue improving. She is also keenly aware that pool careers, like the tournaments along the way, can be a relentless series of hills and valleys.
“My goal,” she said, “is to make the gaps between them smaller and smaller.”
“I expect to be playing with the best of them,” she said of her hopes for the next five years. “I have no aspirations of anything in particular, just to be playing at that level.”
Clark Smith (owner of Malarkey’s), Kim Jones, Suzanne Smith and Ford
Suzanne Smith went undefeated to win the fourth stop on the Northwest Women's Pool Association Tour on the weekend of June 24-25. She had to get by Kim Jones twice to win it; once in a winners' side semifinal and again, in the finals. The $500-added, 10-Ball event drew 17 entrants to Malarkey's Pool & Brew in Tacoma, WA.
After an opening round bye, Smith downed Alicia Kvaanika 7-1 and Stephanie Hefner, double hill, to draw Jones in the winners' side semifinal. Cassie Francois, in the meantime, having defeated Clara Silvas and Andy Ruth, both 7-4, drew Teri Klyzek in the other winners' side semifinal. Smith sent Jones to the loss side 7-5, and in the hot seat match, faced Francois, who'd sent Klyzek to the loss side 7-2. Smith gave up only a single rack to claim the hot seat over Francois, and waited on the return of Jones.
On the loss side, Jones began her trek back to the finals against Ruth, who'd defeated Elaine Eberly 6-2 and Jing Liu 6-1 to reach her. Klyzek picked up Sarah Myer-Mitchell, who'd eliminated Hefner and Silvas, both 6-2, to reach her.
Jones and Myer-Mitchell advanced to the quarterfinals; Jones 7-2 over Ruth and Myer-Mitchell 7-3 over Klyzek. Jones won the quarterfinal match 7-3 over Myer-Mitchell and shut out Francois in the semifinals for a second shot against Smith.
In their second match, a race to 9 in the finals, Smith and Jones battled back and forth to a 6-6 tie before Smith jumped ahead by two to reach the hill first. Jones chalked up a seventh rack, but Smith closed it out at 9-7 to claim the title, and earn the North American Pool Tour qualification that came with the top prize money.
When 16-year-old April Larson first arrived at Shooter's Sports Bar & Billiards in Greyslake, IL on the weekend of August 18-21 to compete in the second stop on the North American Pool Tour, she got a glimpse of the winning trophy. She reportedly got very excited and mentioned to her traveling companion that she didn't care about the winning prize money. She wanted that trophy.
Four days, six opponents and seven matches later, she'd won her first pro event – the $5,000-added Summer 10 Ball Classic that had drawn 58 entrants to Shooter's Sports Bar and Billiards. Proving the point, Larson accepted the trophy and walked away without collecting the $3,400 check that went along with it. NAPT Predidant Adrianne Beach, a fellow competitor and regular on the Northwest Women's Pool Association Tour, chased her down and handed it to her. Larson glanced at it once, and then, a second time, at which point, according to Beach, her eyes went wide, her mouth dropped open, and she was rendered, literally, speechless.
"Is it the most you've ever won?" Beach asked her.
All the youngster could do was nod. It had been a busy summer for Larson. In July, she'd represented the USA at the Atlantic Cup Challenge. Two days after the conclusion of that event (won by Team EUROPE 11-3), Larson won her fifth straight Billiards Education Foundation Junior Nationals Championship. A week or two after that, she traveled to Las Vegas for the BCAPL Championships, competing in three events. She was part of the Women's Gold Scotch Doubles team that finished ninth, finished fifth in the Women's 9-Ball Singles Platinum division, and third in the Women's 8-Ball Singles Platinum Division, having defeated (on the loss side) Briana Miller and Eleanor Callado before being eliminated by Vivian Villareal in the semifinals.
In Illinois, Larson opened her winning campaign with a 7-3 win over Beth Fondell, and then, shut out Adrianne Beach, who would later present her with the winning trophy and even later, the winning check.
"She wasn't missing," said Beach. "Her fundamentals are so solid, and they don't change. It's like her heart rate never increases. She plays without fear."
"She's very steady, very composed and very solid," Beach added, noting that she'd never seen anything like Larson before. "Not at that age, no, especially with her composure."
Larson advanced, sending Jacqui Schroeder and JPNEWT veteran Jia Li to the loss side, both 7-5. This set her up to face Bonnie Arnold in a winners' side semifinal, as Tara Williams and Cassie Francois squared off in the other one. Larson defeated Arnold 7-2, and in the hot seat match, faced Williams, who'd downed Francois 7-1. In their first of two, Larson defeated Williams 7-4 and sat in the hot seat awaiting her return.
On the loss side, Arnold picked up Naomi Williams, who'd eliminated Janet Atwell, double hill and Briana Miller 7-2 to reach her. Francois drew another junior champion Taylor Hansen, who had, a week or so earlier, defeated Vivian Villareal in the finals of the BCAPL's Women's 8-Ball Singles (Platinum Division), in which Larson had placed third. Sent to the loss side by Bonnie Arnold, Hansen defeated Sarah Rousey and Jia Li, both 7-5, to reach Francois.
Hansen advanced to the quarterfinals over Francois 7-2, as Williams spoiled a potential Hansen/Arnold re-match with a 7-1 victory over Arnold. Williams took the subsequent quarterfinal match 7-5 over Hansen, and was then, herself, eliminated 7-5 by Tara Williams in the semifinals.
Larson, though, really wanted the winning trophy for this event. She punctuated her undefeated run in her first pro event by shutting Williams out in the finals to claim the event title.
