Tara Williams worked her way through a very small field of 11 entrants, going undefeated to take the second stop on the Sport 9 Tour. The $500-added event, held on Saturday, May 23, was hosted by Lacy's Cue in Chalmette, Louisiana.
Williams and tour director Janeen Lee battled twice for the title. Williams sent Kim Housman to the loss side 9-4 in one winners' side semifinal, while Lee was busy shipping Susan Shinn over 9-5 in the other. Williams took the first of two against Lee 9-4 and sat in the hot seat, awaiting her return.
Housman and Shinn moved to the loss side and were immediately handed their second loss; Housman going down 7-6 to Jennifer Townsend, who'd gotten a first-round, loss-side bye and then defeated Patty Dietz 7-2, and Shinn falling 7-5 to Betty Lea, who'd defeated Kelly Jones 7-6 and Sonya Chbeeb 7-2.
Lea defeated Townsend 7-3 in the subsequent quarterfinals, leading to a Lee/Lea semifinal; the two, having finished 1st and 3rd, respectively, in the 2014 tour rankings. Lee prevailed 7-3, and got her second shot at Williams in the hot seat. Lee managed two more racks than she'd chalked up in the battle for the hot seat, but Williams completed her undefeated run 9-6 to claim the event title.
Karen Corr started the 2015 year on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women's Tour the way she ended the 2014 season; on a winning note. In the $1,000-added season opener ($500 from Coins of the Realm) that drew 32 entrants to Triple Nines in Elkridge, MD on the weekend of March 7-8, Corr played 50 games of 9-ball and won 42 of them, including back-to-back 7-1 victories over tour director Linda Shea, who, as a result of playing in almost twice as many events as Corr during the 2014 season ended up as the tour's top-ranked player last year.
They met first in the hot seat match. Corr had gotten by Shanna Lewis, Susan Shinn (who had chalked up an event-best three racks against her), and Delia Mocanu (for a 21-4 record) to draw Nicole Monaco in a winners' side semifinal. Shea, in the meantime, had defeated Connie Eddins, Nicole Fleming, and Joy McFeaters-Haas (for a 21-10 record) and played Meredith Lynch. Corr defeated Monaco 7-2, as Shea was busy sending Lynch to the loss side 7-5. Corr took the hot seat 7-1 and waited on Shea's return.
On the loss side, Kim Whitman and Kia Sidbury were making some noise that would see them both win six on that side of the bracket and face each other in the quarterfinals. Whitman had defeated Sidbury 7-1 in the opening round, and then, herself, been sent over by Monaco in the second round.
Sidbury got by Melissa Jenkins (double hill), Lynn Richard, Eugenia Gyftopoulos, Mocanu, and Kassandra Bein to draw Lynch, coming over from the winners' side semifinal. In addition to wins over Judie Wilson and a shutout over McFeaters-Haas, Whitman survived two double hill matches, against Nicole King and Jia Li, to pick up Monaco. Whitman eliminated Monaco 7-3 to chalk up her fifth loss-side win, as Sidbury was chalking up her sixth in a 7-2 win over Lynch.
Whitman ended Sidbury's loss-side campaign 7-5 in the quarterfinals, and got a shot at Shea in the semifinals. Shea took that match 7-5 for her second shot against Corr, who repeated her hot seat performance, claiming the season opener 7-1.
J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour’s 2012 opening event was held at Triple Nines Bar & Billiards in Elkridge, MD on the weekend of February 25th. This event featured a strong field of twenty-four players with $500 added to the winning pot.
Yet another season opening was met with a win by a fired-up My-Hanh Lac. My-Hanh had a strong run through the winner’s bracket of this event, defeating Pauline Mattes, and Ji-Hyun Park. Lac had a close call in her match against Linda Shea in a hill-hill battle. My-Hanh pulled through to defeat Shea and Susan Shinn to follow before heading to the one-loss side after falling to Briana Miller.
Meanwhile, from the bottom half of the bracket, Brianna Miller defeated Borana Andoni, Kathy Friend, Nicole Vincent (hill-hill match), and Charlynn Dzam. Her victory of My-Hanh Lac put Miller in the hot seat. However, Lac was determined to redeem herself and defeated Kathy Friend for a rematch against Briana. The fight was worth it for My-Hanh as she took first place win over Miller.
Congratulations My-Hanh and the other top finishers for great performances at this event:
A couple of notable mentions are the efforts of Charlynn Dzam and Susan Shinn. Both of these players made it to the money rounds from the winner’s bracket for the first time in this tour. Keep up the good work ladies.
The JPNEWT would like to thank all the players for participating in the event. A special continued thanks to Triple Nines for hosting this event and J.Pechauer Custom Cues for supporting the tour.
