The AWBT kicked off their 2018 season on March 10th – 11th at Bullshooters with a field of 43 players and Bernie Store coming back from the one loss side to win and stake early claim to the AWBT points list.
Store’s path through the brackets started off with wins over Stephanie Woodman, Carol Strong and Sandi Wilson before running into Heather Cortez in the final eight. Cortez, the 2017 points list winner, sent Bernie packing to the one loss side in a hill-hill match.
After her win over Store, Cortez went on to defeat Nina Tagley in the final four and then Amanda Pulley for the hot-seat 7-3.
On the one loss side, Store got down to business with wins over Justine Bishop, Beth Orth, Jaye Succo (a hill-hill nail biter), Tagley and then Pulley in the semi-finals.
As is always the case on the AWBT, the finals were an extended race to 9 and Store cruised to a comfortable 9-5 victory for first place.
Sixteen players came back to Bullshooters on Sunday to compete in the second chance event, where Pearl Ortiz defeated Justine Bishop in the finals for first place.
In addition to the ladies events, the AWBT also held their first “Balls Only” event where Jason Melm completed an undefeated run with back to back wins over James Main in the finals for first place and $310 in prize money.
The AWBT will be at Freezer’s for the second stop of the season on April 28th – 29th where they will be playing 9-ball on the 9 foot tables with $500 in added prize money.
The Arizona Women’s Billiard Tour kicked off their 2014 season with a field of thirty one players at Skip & Jan’s in Tempe, Az. The tournament drew players from as far away as New Mexico, California and Nevada. In the end, it was the players from Nevada that dominated the weekend.
Saturday saw it’s fair share of upsets and marquee match ups. Susan Wilbur dropped back-to-back matches to Marcy Thomas and Cathy Kelley to finish in a surprising 25th place. Sara Miller and Amanda Pulley were also victims of first round losses and found themselves on the left side of the board much sooner than they had hoped. Miller would score four left side wins on Saturday, but Pulley would fall to Tina Feliciano and finish in a disappointing 17th place.
Sunday play brought back eight players to fight it out for the tournament win.
Winner’s side matches saw Las Vegas’ Rebecca Wagner score a 7-0 win over Becky Onnembo. In the other winners side match, Bernie Store defeated Vegas’ Tina Larson 7-2. The hot-seat match saw Wagner grind out a 7-3 win over Store.
The one loss side saw Sara Miller send Tracie Hamman back to Tucson with a 7-5 scoreline, and Stacy Allsup eliminate Susan Williams 7-5. Miller and Allsup would continue their winning ways and defeat Tina Larson and Becky Onnembo in the next round.
The final four players would feature two of Arizona’s best along with two of Nevada’s best. Bernie Store would soon become the final hope for Arizona, after Stacy Allsup’s 7-1 win over Sara Miller. Bernie would avenge that loss for Arizona though, with a 7-5 win over Allsup to earn a rematch with Wagner in the finals.
The extended final match saw Wagner come out of the gate strong and take a quick 3-0 lead. Store would stop the bleeding at 3-1, but Wagner continued to cruise and soon held a 7-1 lead. Store is not one to just give up though, and she fought back with three wins to get back within three games at 7-4, before Wagner won the final two games for the 9-4 win and first place.
The second chance tournament on Sunday saw Las Vegas’ Katy Moore complete the Vegas sweep with a win over Donna Taylor in the finals.
Main event winner Rebecca Wagner commented after the event, “Las Vegas came as a team and represented well. We had a blast. Our goal was to have lots of fun and for one of us to win. So, mission accomplished!”
AWBT Staff send their thanks to all of the ladies who travelled from out of town to make this a great event.
They also sent thanks to Natalie Poyner and the staff at Skip & Jan’s for hosting the event and adding $300 to the main event and $50 to the second chance tournament.
Thanks to Jose Gonzales of Las Glorias Grille for adding $100, and the friends of the AWBT for adding another $100.
Thanks for Kristie and Scott for running another great tournament.
