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Khanh Ngo Claims Undefeated Victory at Dog House Billiards – TWCWT First Stop of 2024

May 9th, 2024 | azhousepro | Uncategorized

Becky Simi, Khanh Ngo, Dar Domingo and Revelina Um

Since its inception in the early 1990’s, The West Coast Women’s Tour has established a strong following of some of the top players across the region, while building opportunities for players of all levels to compete. With a history spanning three decades, the backbone of the organization (originally known as the Western Women’s Regional 9-Ball Tour) was founded by players including Julie Hunter, Linda Silva, and Christina Piona, while Emilyn Callado later took over the reins. 

While the tour was historically held across Northern California as well as parts of Nevada, the locations now focus on the greater San Francisco Bay Area. After Emilyn Callado stepped down from leadership a little over ten years ago, the West Coast Women’s Tour has since been led by director Cony Mendoza, alongside WPBA pro Eleanor Callado, who serves the tour as treasurer. In 2024, the tour will be traveling to seven different locations to set up battle amongst some of the toughest ladies on the West Coast. Last year, some of the most notable players on the tour included current and former WPBA members Nicole Keeney, Kim Cuarisma, and former tour director Emilyn Callado. 

To kick off the 2024 season, on Saturday, May 4, TWCWT was hosted by a first-time sponsor for the tour, Dog House Billiards in Cotati, CA. This event drew in a field of forty players from around Northern California and featured $500 in added prize money contributed by room owner Ron Schisler. In its seven years of operation, Dog House has become known as one of the top locations for leagues in Sonoma County, and by sponsoring TWCWT, will help support the progression of women’s pool in the area. 

While the forty players arrived for registration at 10am, the tournament was nearly derailed after an unseasonable storm knocked out the power at 9:30 that morning. Luckily, the power was restored shortly after 11am, and the action was able to get underway. For this opening tour stop, the match format was comprised of one set of 9-ball and one set of 8-ball per match. If each player scored a set for a 1-1 tie, a shootout would determine the winner. 

The story of the tournament would be dominated by one of TWCWT’s veteran players, Khanh Ngo. Hailing from San Francisco, Ngo came away from the 2023 season with the #1 points ranking on the tour and made her mark as the undefeated champion at Dog House Billiards. To move into the final, Khanh Ngo defeated Shawn Modelo, Gaby Benuto, Nicole Keeney, Revelina Um, and Becky Simi. As noted by Ngo, her toughest fights were against Nicole Keeney and Shawn Modelo, who were the only two players to force closely-contested shootouts along her route to victory. 

One of the other impressive performances of the day came from longtime Bay Area player Dar Domingo. Although Domingo only won a single match in the winner’s bracket, she caught fire on the loser’s side and won six straight matches, capped off with a quarterfinal victory over veteran player Revelina Um. In the semifinal, Domingo’s run would end, after a close battle against Becky Simi that ended in a shootout against. This win earned San Mateo-based Simi a rematch in the final against Khanh Ngo. However, the second meeting for these two players ended in similar fashion, as Ngo remained in top form to secure a 2-0 win and take the title. 

Along with the main event, a second-chance tournament is also held at each stop. In this single-elimination tournament, Lyndee Russell came out on top. Kacie Ragen took the runner-up spot while Cinthia Minnear and Kathy Acherzer finished tied for third place. 

The West Coast Women’s Tour would like to acknowledge Dog House Billiards for hosting Stop #1 and providing excellent equipment, as well as contributing a cue which was raffled during the event. Special thanks go out to our sponsors: Adam Sickles, Robbie Lyng Custom Cues & Repair, and Diablo Valley Pool League. 

The next stop on the West Coast Women’s Tour is set to be held on June 29 at Hard Times Billiards in Sacramento. For more tour details and announcements, visit http://www.facebook.com/twcwtour/

 

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Menard double dips Williams to win NAPT Division II Championships

March 1st, 2017 | azhousepro | Uncategorized

Veronique Menard and Susan Williams

It was Canada versus the US in the finals of the North American Pool Tour's Division II Championships on the weekend of February 24-26. The US, in the person of Susan Williams, representing the Arizona Women's Billiard Tour, grabbed the hot seat, but Canada, represented by Veronique Menard, with the Circuit de Feminin du Quebec, came back to double dip Williams in the finals and claim the title. The $5,000-added event, hosted by Hard Times Billiards in Sacramento, CA drew 54 entrants, drawn from 10 Division II Regional Tours. The event was streamed live throughout the weekend by Rail2Rail Productions.
 
The 54 entrants were divided up into eight round robin 'flights,' each yielding four players who competed in a 32-player, double elimination bracket that assured each of them some portion of the $10,400 prize package. Winning their flights and advancing, along with their three closest point-earning competitors were Nicole Keeney, Tina Malm, Veronique Menard, Michelle Cortez, Meredith Lynch, Susan Williams, Jeannie Seaver, and Julia Gabriel.
 
Following victories over Katrina Lyman, Revelina Um, and Liz Lovely, Susan Williams advanced to a winners' side semifinal against Tina Malm. On her end of the bracket, Veronique Menard got by Laura Bendikas, Marion Poole, and Jeannie Seaver, to draw Maria Juana in the other winners' side semifinal.
 
Williams had been alternating between relatively easy matches (if anything at this level can be considered 'easy') and highly competitive matches, including a double hill fight against Lovely in the winners' side quarterfinals. By comparison, she got into the hot seat match with a 7-2 win over Malm.  Menard, on the other hand, saw Juana chalk up two more racks against her (5) than any other opponent to that point. In their first of three, Menard and Williams locked up in a double hill battle that eventually left Williams in the hot seat.
 
On the loss side, Malm met up with Jeannie Seaver, the WPBA's most recent Regional Tour Champion from that January event in Tallahasse, FL. After her defeat at the hands of Menard in a winners' side quarterfinal, Seaver got by Leslie Bernardi 7-1 and Stephanie Hefner 7-2 to draw Malm. Juana drew Lovely, who, following her defeat at the hands of Williams, had downed Nicole Fleming, double hill, and Meredith Lynch 7-5.
 
Malm squeaked by Seaver 7-6, and in the quarterfinals, met up with Lovely, who'd eliminated Juana 7-5. In her 'easiest' loss-side match, Lovely downed Malm 7-2. In what proved to be her toughest loss-side match, Lovely fell to Menard 7-3 in the semifinals.
 
Menard took the opening set of the true double elimination final against Williams 7-4. She took the second set by the same score, and claimed (for Canada) the event title.
The North American Pool Tour thanked the ownership and staff at Hard Times in Sacramento, along with sponsors J. Pechauer Cues, EYO Cues, Rail2Rail Productions, Tara Williams, and MZTam Trinh Designs. Though the complete NAPT schedule of events is still undergoing revisions, the next firmly scheduled event will be the Summer Classic, to be hosted by Shooter's in Chicago on the weekend of August 17-20. Another event has been firmly scheduled for November 2-5 at Mark Griffin's new pool venue, Griff's Billiards in Las Vegas.