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Liz Cole wins NWPA Tour Stop #5, undefeated at The Parlor

Liz Cole (Courtesy of Sandro Menzel)

The Parlor in Bellevue, Washington hosted the fifth tour stop of the Northwest Women’s Pool Associations’ 2013 season.  Located in beautiful downtown Bellevue, the Parlor offers a full variety of entertainment featuring The Parlor Live Comedy Club, the Ultra Lounge, and the Parlor Billiards & Spirits. In addition to the main floor, The Parlor has two private suites and full catering available for your company gatherings.  Check out all they have to offer at www.parlorlive.com.
 
The tournament was run on eleven Brunswick Gold Crowns with Centennial balls.  Twenty-eight players came out to compete Saturday morning and Rail2Rail Productions provided a free live stream all weekend.  The format was 9 ball, alternating break, race to seven on the A side and 6 on the B side.  New players to the tour included Jocelyn Liu, Helen Wragg, and Gloria Villa.  Play wrapped up early Saturday evening and only twelve players returned on Sunday morning with a chance to win the event.  On the A side, Liz Cole played Mary Hopkin, while Eve Stockstill took on Suzanne Smith.  Liz and Eve both advanced through their morning matches, 7-3 and 7-6, respectively to advance.  Liz continued in her winning ways, defeating Eve by a similar margin at 7-4.  B side matches included: Gloria Villa vs. Shari Ross, Denice White vs. Natalie Seal, Tamre Rogers vs. Kim Jones, and Stacy Eilts vs. Jocelyn Liu. Shari (6-1), Natalie (6-3), Kim (6-1), and Stacy (6-4) advanced through their morning matches to the money rounds against each other, where Natalie and Kim defeated their opponents Shari and Stacy by the same score (6-3).  Fresh off their first round losses, Mary then played Kim, while Suzanne took on Natalie.  Kim picked up steam defeating Mary 6-3, while Suzanne recovered from her morning loss defeating Natalie 6-2.  Kim and Suzanne then played each other.  Up 5-4, in a race to 6, Kim seemed to have the edge in this match, but a failed safety and a missed 4-9 combination gave Suzanne the opportunity to close out both of the last two games with early 9s.  Suzanne then went on to defeat Eve 6-3 to earn a place in her first final of the 2013 season.
 
FINAL Match- Liz Cole vs. Suzanne Smith
 
Liz Cole- path to the final: Sheila C (2), Jessica O (0), Natalie Seal (1), Mary H (3), Eve S (4)
 
Suzanne Smith- path to the final: Kathy S (3), Gloria V (2), Jocelyn L (4), loss to Eve S (6), Natalie S (2), Kim J (5), Eve S (3) 
 
The finals were one race to 9, alternating break.  Liz won the lag and both players didn’t really catch a groove until the middle of the set.  At 5-4 Liz, Suzanne missed a 9 to tie the match.  Liz capitalized there to take the 6-4 lead, and never looked back.  Then, a miss on the 1 ball and dry break, by Suzanne resulted in Liz running out both of those racks.  Liz picked up steam and Suzanne couldn’t withstand the heat.  At 8-4, both players made and missed shots.  Suzanne got into a tough position late in the rack and ended up making the 8 and scratching, giving Liz ball in hand on the 9 to win the tournament.  Liz closed the gap between herself and Mary for top slot in overall standings, while Suzanne jumped up from 9th to 3rd place overall.  With two more tour stops, it should be a battle, as always.  
 
Thanks again to The Parlor for their continuous support of the NWPA, our title sponsor Mueller, and all the ladies that make our tour what it is.  The next NWPA event has yet to be confirmed, but is planned for Oct 5-6, 2013.  Please confirm information on the next stop on the NWPA’s website : nwpatour.wordpress.com

 

Liz Cole wins NWPA Season Finale

On November 19-20th The Parlor in Bellevue, WA hosted the NWPA’s 7th and final tour stop of the 2011 Season.  The tournament was ran on 10 9 foot Brunswicks and Rail2Rail Productions provided live streaming throughout the event.  As always, The Parlor was a gracious host and even provided comedy club tickets to several of the entrants after the NWPA banquet hosted as a buffet style dinner at The Ultra Lounge.  Some of the The Parlor’s upcoming events include The Vixen Gauntlet and Country Line Dancing on Wednesdays, Thursday/Saturday football specials with 16 HD TVs and all kinds of door prizes and giveaways, DL Hughley on December 8-10, and Comic Search open auditions on December 15-17.

We would like to give special thanks to our title sponsor MUELLER for their continued support of the NWPA, please show your support to the NWPA by supporting Mueller (www.mueller.com). We would also like to extend a warm welcome to two new players: Clodagh Lancaster from Redmond, WA and Sara Mullenniex from Bellingham, WA.  

2011 NWPA Awards were given at the banquet Saturday night and included:

Tour Champion- Liz Cole

Player of the Year- Kimberly Kirk

Most Improved- Stacy Eilts

Also at the banquet, conclusion of our annual raffle took place.  Ed & Shelby Locati, Phyllis Fernandez, and Liz Cole all won cues and cases donated by Mueller, Brian Johnson and Alisha Rogers both won NWPA merchandise, and Shawn Graves won the coveted Passion Party basket, donated by Liz Cole’s sister.

Fresh off her first top 16 performance at the WPBA’s Tour Championship event Liz Cole was the favorite to win.  With that performance, Liz earned her 2012 exemption on the WPBA, so whoever earned second in the NWPA’s overall standings would prove to be the NWPA representative, along with Liz, on the WPBA for 2012.  In contention were Kimberly Kirk and Deby Welfringer, both players would have to have their best tournament of the year to have an opportunity.  Kimberly would need to win the event, while Deby would need to finish 3rd.  

Twenty ladies came to play on Saturday morning, and unfortunately due to snow, a few of the tours’ top players were not in attendance.  Matches started at 10 am, and the field was whittled down to 8 players who returned on Sunday.  On the A side, Liz Cole squared off against Michelle Hughes (her first Sunday appearance), while Shelby Locati battled against recently crowned 2011 US Amateur Champion, Suzanne Smith.  Liz and Suzanne both won their matches 7-4 and 7-2.  Liz then defeated Suzanne 7-4 to secure her 6th final appearance of the season.  On the B side, Kimberly Kirk played Jessica Orth and Deby Welfringer played Clodagh Lancaster.  Both Kimberly and Deby defeated their opponents 7-5, and momentum from their morning wins propelled them through their second rounds where Kimberly defeated Shelby 7-6 and Deby defeated Michelle 7-3.  

The next match would prove to be a true test, for if Deby were to advance she would be guaranteed a 3rd place finish and take over 2nd place in the standings.  Kimberly had different plans, as she was also in contention for that 2nd place spot, and ended up defeating Deby 7-2.  Kimberly continued her superb play and defeated Suzanne 7-4 to secure her spot in the final against Liz.

Path to the Final
Liz Cole: Andy R (6), Shari R (5), Kathy S (2), Michelle H (5), Suzanne S (4)

Kimberly Kirk: Bye, Sara M (0), loss to Michelle H (5), Andy R (3), Jessica O (5), Shelby L (6), Suzanne S (4)

Kimberly won the lag.  Straight out of the gate, Kimberly continued stroking the ball well to take a 3-0 lead, forcing Liz to take her break early to regain her composure.  After Liz’s break, a couple untimely errors by Kimberly allowed Liz to tie up the match at 3 games each.  Both ladies were shooting great and the match was alos tied at 4-4, 5-5, and 6-6, however in game 14, with an opportunity to tie the match again at 7, a hung 8 ball by Kimberly allowed Liz to take a two game lead 8-6.  Kimberly then scratched on the break for the first time of the set in the next rack and Liz methodically ran out the rack to end Kimberly’s hopes of securing 2nd place in the standings.  Congratulations Ladies, Great Tournament for you both.  Congratulations to Jana Montour as well, who with her 2nd place position in the NWPA’s overall standings has earned her tour card.  Thanks to all who came out to support the NWPA.  It was a great season and we will see everyone (and hopefully more of us) in 2012.

Five ladies returned on Sunday for a $100 Added Second Chance Tournament.  A round robin format was used, so each lady played the others five games.  Alisha Rogers won the most games to claim top prize, while only 1 game separated 2nd and 3rd places. Sara and Talya ended up tied for fourth position, but since Sara had defeated Talya in their match, Sara received 4th place prize.

Second Chance Payouts
Place $ Player
1st 45 Alisha Rogers
2nd 35 Tamre Rogers
3rd 30 Andy Ruth
4th 25 Sara Mulleniex

2011 Western BCA Regional 9-Ball Championships

On October 11-17, 2011 the 14th Annual Western BCA Regional 9-Ball Championships were hosted at Chinook Winds Casino & Resort in Lincoln City, Oregon.  Players from Washington, Oregon and Idaho converged at what is fondly called “Da Beach” to compete for their share of over $75,000 in prize money. While Western BCA volunteers organized the event, Bad Boys Productions set up the 80 Diamond Pool Tables and tracked all results both on the paper brackets that lined the halls and the online brackets available at www.ctsondemand.com.  A moment of silence was held for former Western BCA volunteer Alex Stroup, who succumbed to lymphoma on May 28, 2011.  Many players who knew him well dedicated their performance to him.  Western BCA dedicated the tournament to his memory and extends their love to his family. The stage was set for the best competition in the Northwest. 

Forty-six teams signed up for Master Scotch Doubles and top prize was $1950.  With payouts only including the top of the field, competition was fierce.  The only restriction teams faced was that only one Grand Master was allowed per team.  In a race-to-6 format, alternating break, both teams needed to start out strong to increase their odds of victory.  

Out of the 46 teams, only one team had jointly claimed the title previously, and they were defending champions Mike Stevens and Cindy Doty.  After a fifth round loss to Glenn Atwell/Shari Ross, their hopes of a repeat performance were dashed by national grandmaster Dan Louie and 1st year regional master Jessica Orth.  Louie/Orth would go on to defeat their next opponents Seal/Olson, but then came up short when Atwell/Ross, fresh off their hot seat loss to Violette/Jensen, ground out a gutsy hill-hill nail biter to earn their spot in the final.  The first set of the final would also go hill-hill, but this time in favor of Violette/Jensen, who after earning their first titles as Masters, were surrounded by friends and fellow competitors in celebration of their brilliant breakthrough performance.

CINDERELLA SPOTLIGHT:  Both Leo Violette and Angela Jensen were playing in their first event as regional masters.  Leo won the Open A Singles and Angela took 4th place in the Women’s Open Singles at the Western BCA’s Regional 8 Ball Championships in March.  Neither player had any sort of expectations about their performance; however, the way in which they maintained their composure against some of the toughest players in the region, expect to see more titles to come their way.  Congratulations to you both!

Open Scotch Doubles featured 83 couples and a top prize of $1550.  The final four teams on the A side included McDonald/Adams, Coomes/Sleight, Desmarais/Pridgen, and Fenn/Karpins. Jackson McDonald and Robin Adams continued their strong play defeating Coomes/Sleight, while Fenn/Karpins defeated Desmarais/Pridgen.  McDonald/Adams then defeated Fenn/Karpins 5-1 to earn their spot in the final.  The final four teams on the B side included Anderson/Beach, Hostak/Morfin, Nguyen/Hughes, and Cadena/Wilson.  Hostak/Morfin advanced through the B side of the board, surviving three hill-hill matches and one 5-3 match to earn their shot at the title.  Jackson McDonald/Robin Adams had other plans as they defeated Dennis Hostak/Faith Morfin 5-0 in the first set to earn their first scotch doubles title. Great shooting! 

Seventy players signed up for Men’s Masters and top prize was $1250. Only eight players made it to the final board.  On the A side Clark Smith vs. Rick Copeland and Miguel Morfin vs. Eddie Carrido.  Rick and Eddie both continued on the A side to battle it out for the hot seat, which Eddie won 8-4. Dillon Standley defeated Miguel Morfin to earn a spot in the B side finals.  Rick, too, was determined to earn a rematch against Eddie, and ended up defeating Dillon 8-3 to play in his first Master singles final. Rick was shooting well and defeated Eddie in the first set of this true double elimination final.  He appeared to be in position to close out the second set as well; however, Rick sat on the hill, 7-3 in a race to 8, as Eddie rallied back to tie the set at 7.  With Eddie winning the flip for the second set, he would break in the final game.  Eddie broke and pocketed a ball.  With an extremely tough backcut on the 1, Eddie opted for a 1-9 carom shot on the 9, which he made to win the match and top prize.  

Thirty-seven ladies signed up in the Master division and the top prize was $950.  The final four ladies on the A side included Shawn Wolf vs. Susan Preston and Suzanne Smith vs. Jessica Orth.  Shawn and Suzanne defeated their opponents 7-5 and 7-3 to advance to the hot seat match, which Suzanne won in her closest match of the event 7-6.  The remaining ladies on the B side included Barb Thompson vs. Regene Lane (first time Western BCA participant) and Shari Ross vs. Jo Woodward.  Barb and Shari would continue in the event, defeating their opponents 7-4 and 7-3.  Barb would continue on to defeat Susan, and then Jessica (fresh off her win over Shari.)  The only thing in between Barb and another shot at a title was Shawn.  Shawn played great and defeated Barb 7-4 to earn a rematch against Suzanne in the final.  It was a true double elimination format, so Shawn would need to beat Suzanne twice.  Suzanne took an early 4-1 lead, but then faltered when a position error and a poorly executed safety allowed Shawn to get within 1 game.  At 4-3, Suzanne and Shawn exchanged racks, neither lady able to get an edge.  That 4th game was the last that Shawn would get, as Suzanne played consistently to run out the final two racks from the 5 and the 4 to earn her first Master Singles Title.

One hundred and eight players signed up in the Men’s Open A Division and top prize was $1000.  On the A side, Greg Odal played John Brown for the hot seat.  Both players had been shooting extremely well.  Greg survived three consecutive hill-hill matches prior to the A side final, while John had dispatched his opponents by a larger margin.  Greg shot with determination and sent John to the B side by a score of 7-3.  On the B side, Phong Nyugen played Roy Garza to earn a spot in the B side final.  Phong defeated Roy handily to advance.  Phong, who had received his first loss from Greg (hill-hill) a couple rounds earlier, then succumbed to John by the same score.  The final was a rematch of the hot seat, with a similar outcome.  Greg shot with great determination and focus defeating John in the first set, 7-2. Welcome to the Masters Division, guys!

One hundred and forty-four players entered the Men’s Open B Division and top prize was $750.  On the A side, match ups were Brent Kirschenmann vs. Chap Cook and Gary Lewis vs. Mayolo Munoz.  Brent and Gary defeated their opponents to square off for the hot seat.  Brent then defeated Gary 6-3 to earn his spot in the finals.  On the B side, Scott Perry played Paul Bennett and Larry Nathan played Dave Avegio.  Scott and Dave both advanced through their matches 6-2 and 6-5, respectively.  Chap and Mayolo were eager for redemption and handed Scott and Dave their walking papers 6-4 and 6-0.  Chap then defeated Mayolo 6-4 and Gary 6-5 to earn his spot in the final against Brent.  Brent was fiercely determined to earn the title and did not let Chap have a game in the first set, winning top prize by the score of 6-0.  Welcome to the Open A, gentlemen!

Ninety-eight ladies signed up for the Open event and top prize was $775. Topping the A side, Bernie Foster vs. Rebecca Easley and Kathy Stanley vs. Sara Moore fought to play for the point.  Rebecca and Kathy both survived hill-hill battles to earn a shot at the hot seat.  Both ladies shot well; however, Kathy edged out Rebecca 6-4.  On the B side, final board match ups included Julie Stallings vs. Michelle Hughes and Suwanna Kroll vs. Lynda Moore.  Michelle and Suwanna both defeated their opponents, and it seemed that momentum from their wins carried them through their next rounds, where Michelle defeated Sara and Suwanna defeated Bernie.  Michelle then played Suwanna and defeated her as well to earn a spot against Rebecca in the B side final.  Rebecca was hungry for a rematch with Kathy and defeated Michelle 6-3 to advance.  The first set of the final was an epic battle, when tied at 5-5, Kathy made the 9-Ball on the break to win the set and earn the title.  Great job ladies and welcome to the Masters!

Thirty-six men signed up for the Senior Singles event and the top prize was $440.  The A side final four include matchups of Owen Miller vs. Bill Ruddick and Vernon Joe vs. Mike Knight. Owen and Vernon both advanced through their matches 6-5 and 6-3, respectively.  Vernon shot with amazing intensity and defeated Mike 6-0 to earn a rematch in the final against Owen.  Owen, however, had plans of his own and with consistent shotmaking and safety play defeated Vernon 6-0 in the first set to earn his Senior Singles Title.  

The tournament finished off with the three team divisions: Women’s Team, Men’s/Mixed Team and a brand new division, Men’s/Mixed Open B Team. 

Men’s/Mixed Team started with 102 teams fighting for a $3,000 1st place payday.  Men’s/Mixed Teams are allowed 1 Master or Grand Master per team. Little Dutch Inn (Tim Desmarais, Clayton Foran and Nick Lopez) a team of all OPEN A players, punished many of those teams with a Master, on their way to an final 14-7 victory over Lloyd’s Team (Joe Landi, Brent Langley and Stan Tourangeau).  

The new division, Men’s/Mixed Open B Teams, featured 40 teams for its first time and Probable Cause (Dave Mackey, Jose Velasquez and David Zelany) started winning and never looked back. Facing team Egitserp (Prestige spelled backward–Paul Bennett, Brent Kirschenmann, Martin Seguin and Steve Kesting) in the finals, Probable Cause continued their streak defeating Egitserp 11-9, winning $825.  

The Women’s Team event whittled 48 teams down to the final 2 on Sunday. The Gatekeepers (Michelle Barkdoll, Faith Morfin, and Andrea Saenz-Maes) played strong and consistent to make their way to the finals. Like the Men’s Teams, the Open players in this final really stepped up their game; Andrea attributes their wins to Faith and Michelle. The Gatekeepers emerged victorious over Marco… (Shari Ross, Talya Makus, and Kathy Stanley), and earned $1,710 by beating them with a score of 11-7.

Grand Masters Challenge
The Grand Masters Challenge Division was created to give the top 8 men and women Grand Masters and Masters in Western BCA a tougher challenge with a Round-Robin format tournament. At this Regional event, the men played 10-Ball and the women played 9-Ball. The players played sets of 8 games, with the scores tallied at the end. After 3 days of stellar shooting and grueling safety battles, Liz Cole rose above the ladies’ field and Glenn Atwell topped the men’s division to capture the titles of Grand Masters Challenge Champions. 

It was Liz Cole who came out on top after the first day.  Her opponents noticed her exceptional play early on, with her amazing combos and awesome run-outs, and they knew she would definitely be the one to catch at the end. 2011 8-Ball GMC Champion Linda Carter came within 3 points of catching Liz, but was unable close the gap. In a show of gracious sportsmanship, Linda presented Liz with her beautiful glass Championship trophy. 

Likewise on the Men’s side, Glenn Atwell started out strong and never let up as he charged to his pending victory. His steady stroke, calm demeanor and deadly accuracy gave him a strong lead. Dan Louie, who won the Men’s GMC at the 2011 8-Ball Championships, made a valiant attempt to surpass Glenn in points, but fell short by 4 points. In an equally impressive example of sportsmanship, Dan Louie presented Glenn with his Championship trophy. 

Western BCA and all of the Grand Masters wish to thank Tiger for their sponsorship and generous donation of a cue stick for a raffle. Scott Virgin of Cherry City League won that raffle drawing. Congratulations Scott! And, Congratulations to our Grand Masters Champions, Liz Cole and Glenn Atwell!!  
Final Scores

Liz Cole–36
Linda Carter–33
Cindy Sliva–31
Cindy Doty–30
Josie LeRoy–25
Mary Hopkin–23
Andrea Saenz-Maes–23
Kimberly Kirk–23
       
Glenn Atwell–37
Dan Louie–33
Stan Tourangeau–30
Eddie Mataya–27
Rich Geiler–25
Steve Lingelbach–25
Don Wirtaman–25
Todd Marsh–22

All the players and winners at this event exhibited outstanding sportsmanship and competition. Congratulations to all the winners! For a more detailed version of this article and complete results, please visit www.westernbca.org. Western BCA looks forward to seeing you all next year at the 8-Ball Championships in March, 2012!