(l to r): Chris Rogers (TD), Liz Cole, Cindy Sliva & Mike Bean (Legends owner)
Under the leadership of a new President, Stephanie Hefner, the Northwest Womens’s Pool Association (NWPA) opened its 2020 season with a $1,000-added, 10-ball stop at Legends Billiards Room in Beaverton, OR last weekend (Feb. 22-23). Hefner, who won the NAPT Division II Championships the previous weekend (Feb.16-17) in Phoenix, AZ, won this most recent event’s Second Chance tournament while finishing in the tie for 17th in the main event. Liz Cole, a long-time competitor on the tour went undefeated through the field of 56 entrants. Cole faced different opponents in the hot seat and finals, but battled another veteran tour competitor, Cindy Sliva, twice to claim the title.
Cole opened up with victories over Claire Lewis 6-1, Stacie Larson 6-2 and shut out Cindy Doty before running into Sliva for the first time in the winners’ side quarterfinal. Cole sent Sliva to the loss side 6-3 and drew Melissa Rushton in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Kira North, in the meantime, squared off against Donna Kingsbury in the other one.
North and Cole advanced to the hot seat match; North, 6-2 over Kingsbury and Cole, 6-3 over Rushton. Cole downed North 6-3 to claim the hot seat.
Cindy Sliva had opened her loss-side campaign with two 6-3 victories over MaryBeth Johnson and Deby Welfringer to pick up Kingsbury. Rushton drew Robin Adams, who’d been defeated by Sliva in the event’s third round and was in the midst of a four-match, loss-side winning streak that had entailed three double hill wins for her. With two of those double hill wins behind her, Adams downed Joyce Robinson 6-3 and then, chalked up her third double hill win, against Shirley Morgan to reach Rushton.
Rushton spoiled Adams’ bid for a rematch against Sliva and ended her streak 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals. She was joined by Sliva, who’d defeated Kingsbury 6-1. Rushton put up a fight in those quarterfinals, falling just a game short of double hill, but Sliva prevailed 6-4 and then, gave up just a single rack to North in the semifinals.
Cole completed her undefeated run with a strong victory in the finals. She gave up only two racks and claimed the title 9-2 over Sliva.
Tour director Chris Rogers thanked the ownership and staff at Legends Billiards for their hospitality. The next stop on the NWPA Tour will be the Martha Harstell Memorial Tournament, a 9-ball event, scheduled for the weekend of March 28-29, to be hosted by The Cue Ball in Salem, OR.
Cindy Sliva and Suzanne Smith (Photo courtesy of Sandro Menzel)
On March February 27-28th – the NWPA’s first tour stop of the 2016 season, the Washington State 9 Ball Championships, was hosted by Malarkey’s Pool & Brew in Tacoma, WA. The tournament was ran on 9 9-foot Gold Crowns with Rail2Rail Productions providing a free live stream all weekend. The NWPA tour standings and 2016 schedule are available at www.nwpatour.com and is sanctioned by the newly formed North American Pool Tour. New tour sponsors include mzTam.com, who donated 5 goody bags to the NWPA player rewards program, and Dave Jones, who will be donating a custom cue towards increasing player payouts. Get in touch with your favorite NWPA ladies to learn more about purchasing raffle tickets as details are finalized.
Twenty-three ladies came out to compete Saturday morning. There was one new player to the tour, Miranda Sellman from Oregon originally, but now residing in Gig Harbor, WA. The tournament was ran on 9 9-foot Brunswick Gold Crowns. The format was a race to 7, alternating break, 9 ball, with a race to 6 on the B side. The main event was $500 added and a second chance tournament was held on Sunday for players who did not make it into the money rounds.
Sunday morning, eight players remained. A side match ups included Cindy Sliva vs. Kira North and Julie Suzanne Smith vs. Tricia Heintz. Cindy and Suzanne both advanced through their morning matches, 7-0 and 7-4. Cindy and Suzanne then squared off in the hot seat match. Suzanne advanced by the score 7-5 to earn her spot in the final. B side match ups included Kimberly Kirk vs. Clara Silvas and Deby Welfringer vs. Jeanne Christensen. Kimberly and Deby advanced through their first round of play 6-4 and 6-2, earning a shot at Tricia and Kira. Kimberly and Deby both continued on the B side, defeating their opponents 6-3 and 6-2. Kimberly then squared off against Deby. Kimberly advanced by the narrowest of margins (6-5) to play Cindy in the semifinals. Both players battled, taking that match to the hill as well, where Cindy ended up winning the final rack to earn a rematch against Suzanne.
Suzanne Smith path to final: Melissa D. (3), Andy R. (2), Jeanne C. (3), Tricia H. (4), Cindy S (5)
Cindy Sliva path to final: Bye, Adrianne B. (1), Kimberly K. (3), Kira N. (0), loss to Suzanne S. (7-5), Kimberly K. (5)
The final was one race to 9, alternating break. During the early racks, both players tried to find their groove, exchanging racks, with Suzanne then taking a two game lead at 4-2. Suzanne then turned it up a notch and closed out each of the following racks, to make it 7-2 with a break and run. Cindy answered with a break and run of her own to make it 7-3. Suzanne responded breaking and running her second rack of the finals to reach the hill. At 8-3, Suzanne faltered, made some critical errors, including a miss on what could have been her winning 9 ball. At 8-7, Cindy appeared to be running out to tie the set at 8-8, when she got funny on the 7 ball. She pocketed the 7, but left herself long on the 8, which she missed. Suzanne was able to close out the rack and win the event with the final score of 9-7. Congratulations to Suzanne for winning the event and to Cindy for a great event as well.
Great tournament ladies! The NWPA’s next event is the 5th Annual Martha Hartsell Memorial and will be hosted at The Cue Ball in Salem, OR on April 23-24, 2016.
Six ladies returned on Sunday for the $100 added Second Chance tournament. With the low turnout, there was no entry fee and players got lots of table time, playing a round robin, best of 5 games against each of the other players. Patricia and Anna ended up tied for first with 17 wins, however Patricia took top prize, since she had defeated Anna earlier 3-2. Newcomer Miranda Sellman wasn’t far behind in 3rd place with 15 wins. Nice job ladies!
Kira North, Ford and Suzanne Smith (Photo courtesy of Sandro Menzel)
On March 21-22, 2015- the NWPA’s first tour stop of the 2015 season, the Washington State 9 Ball Championships, was hosted by Malarkey’s Pool & Brew in Tacoma, WA. The tournament was ran on 9 9-foot Gold Crowns with Rail2Rail Productions providing a free live stream all weekend. The NWPA tour standings and 2015 schedule are available at www.nwpatour.com and is sanctioned by the WPBA. All skill levels are welcome to play and players can accrue points towards their semiprofessional status while gaining experience playing some of the top women players in the northwest. The main event was $750 added, while a Second Chance tournament was available to ladies not making it to the second day. We would like to thank our sponsors Ozone Billiards for donating magic racks for the entire season and Volturi Cue Cases for donating three $500 vouchers for custom cases. Raffle tickets can be purchased for the vouchers through Suzanne Smith (suzos78@gmail.com), and are $10 each. Only 50 tickets will be sold for each voucher, winners will be announced at the conclusion of each voucher’s ticket sales.
Thirty ladies came out to compete Saturday morning. There were several new players to the tour including including Cindy Salcedo (Bozeman, MT), Claire Binci (Corvalis, OR), Brittany Marshall (Spanaway, WA), Andrea Dexter (Renton, WA), and Dara Koch (Portland, OR). The tournament was ran on 9 9-foot Brunswick Gold Crowns. The format was a race to 7, alternating break, 9 ball, with a race to 6 on the B side. There were several first round byes, but play sped right along, without any major upsets going through the early rounds.
Sunday morning, only eight players remained. A side match ups included Cindy Sliva vs. Liz Cole and Julie Valdez vs. Kira North. Cindy and Kira both advanced through their morning matches, 7-2 and 7-5. Cindy and Kira then squared off in the hot seat match. Kira advanced by the score 7-5 to earn her spot in the final. B side match ups included Carissa Biggs vs. Kirsten Fery and Suwanna Matarazzo vs. Suzanne Smith. Carissa and Suzanne advanced through their first round of play 6-1 and 6-4, earning a shot at Liz and Julie. Liz and Suzanne both advanced through the next round by the same score: 6-3. Liz then squared off against Suzanne. Liz led throughout the entire match; however, it was Suzanne who would sink the final 9 ball in their hill-hill match up. Suzanne then played Cindy and defeated her as well, 6-4.
Kira North path to final: Mary O (F), Kathy S (3), Kim T (5), Julie V (5), Cindy S (5)
Suzanne Smith path to final: Patricia T (0), loss to Natalie S (6), Elaine E (2), Tamre R (4), Rebecca S (2), Suwanna M (4), Julie V (3), Liz C (5), Cindy S (4)
The final was one race to 9, alternating break. During the early racks, both players tried to find their groove. At 3-2 Suzanne, Kira was at the table with a 2 ball out. Unfortunately, Kira missed the 9 and scratched giving Suzanne the 4-2 lead. From that point, Suzanne continued to shoot with confidence, increasing her lead to 5-2 in the next rack, then allowing Kira her final rack of the set to make the score 5-3. Suzanne took advantage of opportunities afforded by her opponent, running out three of the final four racks from the 4, 5 and 2. Congratulations to Suzanne, this was her first tour stop in win since 2009, and to Kira for making her second final appearance in only three events played.
Great tournament ladies! The NWPA’s next event is the 4th Annual Martha Hartsell Memorial and will be hosted at The Cue Ball in Salem, OR on April 25-26.
Eight ladies returned on Sunday for the $100 added Second Chance tournament. With a $10 entry, half the field made some money in the true double elimination tournament, race to 3 on the A side and race to 2 on the B side. Kim Toops ended up winning top prize, defeating Dara Koch in the finals. Good work ladies, nice shooting.
Liz Cole's victory at the third stop on the Northwest Women's Pool Association Tour jumped her up six slots on the 2014 tour rankings, into second place. Jing Liu, who entered the tournament at the top of the rankings, maintained that position by chalking up 30 ranking points, in the tie for 17th place. Kim Toops, entering in the #3 slot, also finished in that tie, and dropped to fourth, when Cole moved ahead of her. Cole, winner of three stops on the NWPA Tour in 2013, picked up her first in 2014 at the May 3-4, $500-added event that drew 29 entrants to Ballad Town Billiards in Forest Grove, OR.
Cole's path to the finals made two initial stops on the winners' side of the bracket, with victories over Gretchen Sziebert, a shutout, and Stacy Eilts 6-2, before running into Mary Olson, who defeated her 6-4. The victory moved Olson into a winners' side semifinal against Kira North. Fran Johnson and Sheila Clark squared off in the other. North survived a double hill fight against Olson, as Clark downed Johnson 6-3. North claimed the hot seat 6-4 over Clark and waited on Cole.
Cole eliminated Johnson 6-1, earning herself a rematch in the quarterfinals against Olson, who'd defeated Matarazzo 6-3. Cole had the last say in a double hill contest, and then, defeated Clark 6-3 in the semifinals. In a single race-to-9 final, Cole defeated North 9-4 to claim the event title.
