Sharon O'Hanlon and Nicole Albergaria
National and local competitions had a decided impact on the field of players in attendance for the sixth stop on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women's Tour, held on the weekend of July 30-31. The BCA Pool League Championships, which had just wrapped up in Las Vegas as the event began, combined with a few tournaments in the tri-state New York area, led to a field of 12 in the $750-added JPNEWT event, hosted by Raxx Billiards in West Hempstead, NY. The event was won by Nicole Albergaria, who went undefeated, facing Sharon O'Hanlon in both the hot seat match and finals.
It took five matches for Albergaria to claim the title; two double hill wins, a shutout and in the end, two 7-2 victories. Gail Robles was Albergaria's first double hill victim, which Albergaria followed with a shutout over Elaine Wilson. This set her up to face tour director Linda Shea in a winners' side semifinal, as O'Hanlon, winner over Karen Brooks and Nicole King, faced Melissa Jenkins in the other one.
Albergaria downed Shea, double hill, while O'Hanlon sent Jenkins to the loss side 7-4. Albergaria chalked up the first of two 7-2 wins, claiming the hot seat over O'Hanlon.
On the loss side, Jenkins picked up Kia Sidbury, who entered the tournament in the tour's third ranking spot behind Karen Corr and Shea. Sent to the loss side by Shea in her opening round (after a bye), Sidbury gave up three racks over two matches, against Karen Brooks (1) and Carol Clark (2) to face Jenkins. Shea drew Gail Robles, who, after her defeat at the hands of Albergaria on the winners' side, bested Suzette Santos-Wade 7-2, and Judie Wilson 7-4.
The #2 and #3-ranked players on the tour (Shea and Sidbury) advanced to the quarterfinals; Shea, 7-3 over Robles and Sidbury 7-5 over Jenkins. Shea defeated Sidbury 7-4 to face O'Hanlon in the semifinals. O'Hanlon thwarted Shea's shot at a re-match against Albergaria with a double hill win in that semifinal match.
Having entered the tournament in the eleventh ranking spot, O'Hanlon's presence in the finals, win or lose, assured her elevation to the fourth spot on the tour rankings, behind Sidbury. Albergaria duplicated her hot seat effort against O'Hanlon in the finals (7-2) to claim the event title. In addition to her cash prize, Albergaria was awarded qualification to an upcoming North American Pool Tour (NAPT) event.
Stop #7 on the JPNEWT, a $500-added event, scheduled for this coming weekend (Aug. 6-7), will be hosted by Level-2 Billiards in Somerdale, NJ, a new venue for the JPNEWT.
