Alyssa Solt
Two veterans of the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour (JPNEWT) battled it out in the hot seat and finals of On the Hill Productions’ MD State Women’s 8-Ball Championships this past weekend (March 11-12). Former JPNEWT tour director, Linda Shea, who finished 3rd in the 2022 tour standings, went undefeated to the hot seat. Alyssa Solt, who finished 5th in the tour’s 2022 standings, came back from her loss to Shea in the hot seat match and defeated her in the finals to claim the event title. The event drew 57 entrants to Brews & Cues on the Boulevard in Glen Burnie, MD.
Solt started strong in the event, allowing her first three opponents (in races to 6), to chalk up only six racks against her; Taylor Perkins (2), Malea Haacke (1) and Nicole Nester (3). The against-racks started mounting up in a winners’ side quarterfinal against Karlene Goodrich (4), which set Solt up to face Lai Li in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Shea, in the meantime, started out with a bit of a bang, shutting out her first opponent, Sharita Pernell, before getting by Heather Platter (3), Jenny Mohammed (3) and in the other winners’ side quarterfinal, junior competitor Hayleigh Marion (4). This set her up against Carol V. Clark in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Solt defeated Li 6-4 and advanced to the hot seat match. She was joined by Shea, who’d sent Clark to the loss side 6-2. Shea grabbed the hot seat 6-2 over Solt.
On the loss side, Li picked up Nicole Nester, who, following her loss to Solt, was on a modest, four-match winning streak that had recently eliminated two junior competitors in a row; Hayleigh Marion and Skylar Hess, both 6-3. Clark drew Bethany Sykes, who’d lost her opener to Hess and embarked on a six-match streak, in which she’d given up only two racks, total, to her last three opponents before Clark; Mohammed (0), Goodrich (1) and Debra Pavan-Peterman (1).
Clark put a stop to that momentum with a 6-3 win over Sykes, as Nester downed Li 6-2. Clark and Nestor battled back and forth to double hill in the quarterfinals that followed, with Clark eventually advancing to the semifinals against Solt.
Solt put a stop to Clark’s momentum, allowing her only a single rack in their semifinal battle for advancement to the finals (6-1). Solt claimed the event title with a 6-3 victory over Shea in the finals.
TD Loye Bolyard thanked the ownership and staff at Brews & Cues for their hospitality, as well as sponsors Simonis Cloth, Aramith Balls, TAP Chesapeake Bay Region, Safe Harbor Retirement Planners, Bull Carbon, Gina Cunningham, Keller Williams, Integrity and DigitalPool.com. Bolyard also gave a ‘shout out’ to Wayne Everhart at TTMD Billiard Streaming and Kelly Daniel for “together, building the women’s pool scene in Maryland.”
Next up on the On The Hill Productions’ calendar will be the MD State 9-Ball Open, scheduled for April 1-2 and hosted once again by Brews & Cues on the Boulevard in Glen Burnie, MD.
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