The New England Women's Pool Tour held a WPBA Qualifier July 20, 2008 at Pool Table Magic in Windsor Locks, CT. Many thanks to owner Mark Kulungian, a true pool enthusiast, for hosting the event at his fine establishment and supporting the tour. The staff were so friendly and did an absoultly wonderful job. This was probably the most enjoyable event the tour has ever had.
The tour would like to welcome new members Renee Lafferty, Janet Tycks, and 9th place finishers Kristine Landry and Ina Wilpur. We hope to see you all again at future events.
It was a great day for Nicole Albergaria who seems to be on top of her game right now. She defeated Corinne Johnson 7-6, Kristine Landry 7-1, and Liz Taylor 7-3 to face former tour stop winner Candi Rego in the hotseat. Albergaria played a strong game and defeated Rego 7-0.
Rego played the tour's 2007 Player of the Year Liz Taylor in the semifinal. Taylor took advantage of Rego's late rack misses in games one and two to win those and had a break and run in game 3. Taylor was forced to push out in rack 4 and Rego ran the table. Taylor took the next 3 games to put her on the hill with a score of 6-1. The match looked bad for Rego but she did not give up. Rego started playing phenomenally and won 6 games in a row to earn a re-match with Albergaria in the final.
Nothing went well for Rego in the final and Albergaria kept the pressure on. Albergaria won game one with an early 2-9 combo. Rego missed a 6-9 combo in game 2 and Albergaria ran out. Rego was just not able to complete any runs. After losing games 3 and 4 Rego ran down to the 8 in game 5, banked it, but could not make the 9 ball. Albergaria won that game and the next two to win the match 7-0.
Nicole Albergaria will be playing at the WPBA Carolina Classic September 10-14, 2008 in Durham, NC.
