Melissa Rushton (Courtesy Sandro Menzel)
In six recorded attempts to win an event on the Northwest Women’s Pool Association Tour (NWPA) over the past five years (tracking only efforts in which she won a cash prize), Port Angeles, WA’s Melissa Rushton has never finished less than seventh in events that have never drawn less than 40 entrants. Were it not for her seventh-place finish in an NWPA event three years ago, that fact would have been “never finished less than fifth in five attempts.” This past weekend (Oct. 25-27), at Stop #6 on the 2024 tour, hosted by OX Billiards in Seattle, Rushton went undefeated through a field of 47 to claim her first NWPA title.
Rushton grabbed that title in the midst of what the annals of the NWPA might well refer to (now and in the future) as the ‘Molina Ortiz Era.’ Ortiz has won a total of 11 stops on the tour in the past three years; three in ’22 and four each in ’23 & ’24. She has been the Tour Champion for the past two years. She came to the tables at OX Billiards looking for her fifth 2024 title. Rushton didn’t get the opportunity to compete against her, although she came within a match of doing so when Kathie MacDonald sent Ortiz to the loss side in a winners’ side quarterfinal and later, Katherine Robertson would eliminate her in the event quarterfinals.
It’s likely, though not confirmed, that Rushton was also well aware that among the field of 47 was the woman, Jiu Ling, who had denied Rushton her first shot at a title in the finals of the NWPA’s 20th Anniversary event in 2021. Katherine Robertson was instrumental in keeping her out of Rushton’s hair. Ling was first defeated by this past weekend’s eventual runner-up, Andy Camping, in another winners’ side quarterfinal and then, eliminated by Robertson on the loss side.
That said, Rushton, making her first appearance on the 2024 tour, got into the hot seat match with an aggregate score of 25-6, giving up just a single rack in her opening match against Jeanne Christiansen and none at all to either Catt Edgley or Regene Lane. In her trip to the hot seat match, she had defeated the tour’s #2 and #4 competitors in the 2024 Member Standings; Kathie MacDonald (who’s tied with Stephanie Drakulic) and Lane.
Rushton squared off against MacDonald in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Camping, in the meantime, had survived something of a roller coaster ride to the hot seat match, alternating matches in which she’d given up a single rack to Murray Eagleclaw and Rita Chew, with double hill wins over Sophia Tran and Jing Liu. Camping drew Tylyn Holzapfel in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Rushton defeated MacDonald 5-2, as Camping sent Holzapfel to the loss side 5-3. Rushton claimed the hot seat 5-3 over Camping. By that time (6:54 p.m., Sunday evening, according to digitalpool.com’s time stamps), Rushton knew that she wouldn’t be facing either Ling or Ortiz in the finals. Both had been eliminated by Katherine Robertson (#9 in the Member Standings). Ling was eliminated by her at 2:14 and Ortiz, three matches later, eight minutes before the conclusion of the hot seat match.
Ortiz, having arrived on the loss side after her loss to MacDonald, had defeated Dona Valdez and Regene Lane, both 5-1, and then, locked up in a double-hill fight against Holzapfel for advancement to the quarterfinals. She won that battle and was joined by Robertson, who’d eliminated MacDonald 5-1.
Robertson removed Ortiz from the list of ‘spoilers’ to Rushton’s undefeated run with a 5-3 win in those quarterfinals. Robertson was removed from the list, as well, when Andy Camping fought a double-hill battle in the semifinals and earned the right for a second shot at Rushton.
“It doesn’t matter whether I win or lose, because I’m just happy to be in the final,” said no one, ever.
The two finalists were both vying for their first 2024 win, their first NWPA title and looking to improve on their best cash-finish on the tour. As the finals began, Camping, with a history of one-per-year finishes that were moving in the wrong direction – 7th in ’21, 8th in ’22 and 9th in ’23 – had already checked the last of those three ‘boxes.’ And it looked, at first, as though she was ‘in stroke’ enough to accomplish the other two.
Camping opened up a quick, albeit short lead, winning the first two racks. Rushton broke and ran the third rack (2-1) before Camping came right back to win the fourth (3-1). At this point, while the match itself didn’t pick up any discernible speed, Rushton’s shot-making sure did. She won the next six racks to claim that elusive, first NWPA title.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at OX Billiards for their hospitality, along with official tour sponsor Littman Lights, and the tour’s official stream sponsor Hill-Hill productions.
The next and final stop on the 2024 NWPA Tour will be its Annual Awards Banquet, at which the tour will announce the year’s Tour Champion, Rookie of the Year, Player of the Year, Most Improved Tour Player and if applicable, any President’s Awards. Scheduled for the weekend of Dec. 7-8, the Awards banquet will be hosted by Legends Billiards in Beaverton, OR.
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