The Arizona Women’s Billiard Tour held their second point event of the season over the weekend of June 30th - July 1st on the 9 foot tables at Skip & Jan’s. The field of twenty seven players consisted of ladies from Nevada, New Mexico and Wisconsin, as well as the top ladies from Arizona.
Tour points leader Angel Paglia was the early favorite, and she lived up to that billing with day one wins over Beverly Cook and Tucson’s Tracie Hamman.
Joining Angel on the winners side after one day of play were Stacy Allsup, Nina Tagley and Susan Williams. Williams had an especially tough bracket on Saturday and scored wins over Susan Wilbur, Sara Miller and Justine Bishop to remain undefeated.
The tournament paid twelve spots, but only eight players would come back on Sunday. That left Jodi Hirning, Jaye Succo, Cathy Kelley and Lynor Johnson in 9th place with $25 each.
Sunday dawned with Hamman eliminating Bishop and Miller ending Gaff’s tournament in 7th place.
Meanwhile, on the winners side, Susan Williams scored a comeback win over Angel Paglia to send Paglia to the unfamiliar territory of the one loss side. Williams trailed in this match 6-4, but came back with three straight games to win the match 7-6.
Williams opponent for the hot-seat would be Las Vegas’ Stacy Allsup, who had earned a tough 7-5 win over Nina Tagley.
The match for the hot-seat was not a pretty one as both players struggled to find their games. Williams had the best of it though, with 3-0 and 6-1 leads before putting the match away 7-3.
Back on the one loss side, Tracie Hamman was continuing her great play in this event and scored a 7-6 win over Nina Tagley. Tagley settled for 5th place along with Sara Miller who lost to Angel on the left side of the board.
Next up was a rematch between Paglia and Hamman. Paglia had sent Hamman to the one loss side in a close 7-5 match on Saturday, but the rematch would be all Paglia as she cruised to a 7-1 win and Hamman earned her best AWBT finish in 4th place.
The semi-final match between Paglia and Allsup started off looking like another easy win for Paglia, but Allsup wasn’t going to go back to Vegas that quick. Paglia rushed out to an early 4-0 lead, but a scratch on the 8-ball in the fifth rack gave Allsup a little air and she took full advantage by winning the next three games to get back within one rack at 4-3. Allsup had a chance to knot the match at 5-5, but missed a 9-ball and instead trailed 6-4. Paglia would go on from there to win the match 7-5 and force a rematch with Susan Williams in the finals.
Things started out close at 1-1 in the finals, but Paglia made her move with four straight wins for a 5-1 lead. Paglia held a 7-2 lead when Williams tried to make one last stand. Williams won two of the next three games to get back to 8-4 before Paglia put the match away 9-4 for the tournament win and $315 in prize money. Williams settled for $210 for second.
The second chance event on Sunday would see an undefeated run by Susan Wrightson, a veteran of the game who is coming back from a multi year layoff. Wrightson defeated Angela Brown 3-1 for the hot-seat and defeated Brown again 5-1 in the extended final match.
Tour director Kristie Ortega and Tres Kane thanked Natalie Poynter and her staff at Skip & Jan’s for another great tournament. They also thanked both Jose Gonzales and their anonymous benefactor for helping make this event a $600 added event.
The next stop on the AWBT Tour will be at Pockets in Tucson on September 15th and 16th.
