Every stop on the 2012 Northwest Women's Pool Association Tour, all six of them (seven, if you include the WPBA's Western Regional Tour Championship) have been won, on alternating occasions, by either Kim Jones or Jana Montour. The two have been in the finals of all but two of those events. On the sixth stop, on the weekend of September 22-23, it was Jones' turn, and she obligingly showed up and went undefeated to chalk up her third tour victory (fourth, if you're counting the RTC). This time around, though, it wasn't Montour she had to beat in either the hot seat or finals. It was Shelby Locati, in both cases. The event allowed all four of the tour's top ranked players to maintain their position ranking, with Montour in first place, Jones second, Liz Cole third and Locati fourth. The $1,200-added event drew 23 entrants to Stixx and Stones in Bremerton, WA.
Following victories over Tamre Rogers, Sandy Badger, and Mary Hopkin, Jones moved among the winners' side final four to meet Kimberly Kirk. Locati was awarded an opening round bye, and got by Trinh Lu and Deby Welfringer to earn a winners' side final four meetup versus Cindy Sliva. Jones and Locati downed Kirk and Sliva 7-5, and met for the first time in the hot seat match, where Jones prevailed 7-3.
Kirk moved to the loss side and met up with Welfringer, who'd defeated Badger 7-5 and finished Cole's weekend with a 7-3 win. Sliva drew Montour, who'd been defeated by Kirk in the third round, and defeated Rogers 7-4 and Hopkin 7-5. It was Montour and Kirk who moved on to the quarterfinals; Montour having defeated Sliva 7-3, as Kirk eliminated Welfringer 7-5.
In those quarterfinals, Montour and Kirk battled back and forth, to a slim 6-5 lead for Montour. Kirk hung a 9-ball in the 12th game that would have knotted things at double hill. Montour finished it and got a crack at Locati in the semifinals.
Locati came out strong and allowed Montour only a single rack to earn a second shot at Jones in the hot seat. Apparently not wanting to break up the back and forth victory schedule that she and Montour had established, Jones took the extended race-to-9 finals 9-4 to complete her undefeated weekend.
Suzanne Smith came out on top in a $100-added, single elimination Second Chance tournament on Sunday, besting Shari Ross in the finals. Alisha Rogers and Tamre Rogers (no relation) ended up in the tie for third place.
