Liz Lovely rallied from an opening set defeat at the hands of Jessica Frideres in the finals of the Midwest 9-Ball Tour's $700-added Ladies event, held on the weekend of July 8-10, to win the second set and claim the ladies' title. The event, held in conjunction with a One Pocket and Open event (separate stories) drew 24 entrants to Shooter's in Olathe, KS.
They met first in a winners' side semifinal, as Kathleen Morast and Karen Lincoln met in the other one. Lovely sent Frideres to the loss side 7-2, and in the hot seat match, faced Morast, who'd defeated Lincoln 7-5. Lovely claimed the hot seat 7-4 over Lincoln and waited on Frideres.
On the loss side, Frideres picked up Amy Boulware, who'd defeated Monica Dibben, double hill, to reach her. Morast drew Rhea Brooks, who'd gotten by Alisha Ropes 7-4. Frideres shut out Boulware, and in the quarterfinals, faced Morast, who'd eliminated Ropes, double hill.
Frideres took the quarterfinal match over Morast 7-3, and then eliminated Lincoln 7-4 in the semifinals. With a bit of momentum on her side, Frideres took the opening set of the true double elimination final 7-2. Lovely came back to take the second set 7-5 and claim the event title.
John Gabriel went undefeated on the Midwest 9-Ball Tour’s $3,500-added 9-ball event on the weekend of February 23-26, working his way through a field of 150 entrants at Shooter’s in Olathe, KS. Melissa Little also went undefeated in the $500-added Ladies event, which had attracted 20 entrants.
From among the winners’ side final four, Gabriel sent Chuck Raulston west 9-5, as Dustin Gunia was busy sending Mike Banks, Jr. over 9-4. Gabriel then took the hot seat match over Gunia 9-5, and waited for his return.
First up for Banks, Jr. on the loss-side was the winner of the concurrently-run One-Pocket event, Mark Haddad, who’d defeated James Baraks 9-6, and Anthony Garcia 9-3 to reach him. Chuck Raulston, in the meantime, squared off against Joey Gray (second in the One-Pocket event), who’d downed Gary Lutman 9-3, and Gordy Vanderveer 9-6. Haddad defeated Banks, Jr. 9-4, but a re-match of the One-Pocket semifinals was avoided when Raulston dropped Gray into the tie for fifth place 9-5.
Raulston took it a step further, dropping Haddad into fourth place 9-5, and turning to face Gunia in the semifinals. Gunia ended Raulston’s bid 9-2 for a second chance versus Gabriel in a potential, true double elimination final. Gabriel took the first and only set 9-5 to secure the event title.
Melissa Little and Nicole Keeney battled twice to crown the Ladies champion. They met first in the hot seat match, and fought back and forth to double hill before Little prevailed. Keeney moved over to the semifinals to face Kathleen Morast, who’d just defeated Carrie Williams in the quarterfinals 7-5. Keeney then shut out Morast for her second chance against Little. Little, though, came out strong in the opening set of what would have been a true double elimination final, and defeated Keeney a second time 7-2.
