Karen Corr seems determined to match her 2014 performance on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women's Tour, when she won all five of the events in which she competed. Tour director Linda Shea seems equally determined to be the competitor who stops Corr's string of JPNEWT victories. She was the runner-up in two of Corr's 2014 victories, and won the tour's final 2014 stop. On the weekend of April 25-26, Corr chalked up her second straight win on the 2015 tour, and for the second time, it was Shea who met her in the hot seat and finals. The $1,000-added event ($500 from Coins of the Realm) drew 26 entrants to First Break Cafe in Sterling, VA.
In the season opener in March, Corr went 42-8. In the second stop, she went 42-10, defeating Brit Rapp, Asia Cy, and Nicole Fleming to draw Nicole Monaco in a winners' side semifinal. Shea, in the meantime, got by Colleen Shoop, Melissa Jenkins, and Tina Scott, to draw Eugenia Gyftopoulos in the other. Shea downed Gyftopoulos 7-5, as Corr was shutting Monaco out. Corr took the first of two over Shea 7-3 to claim the hot seat.
On the loss side, Joy McFeaters was in the midst of an impressive six-match run that would take her as far as the semifinals. Defeated by Monaco 7-3 in the opening round, McFeaters was awarded a bye in her opening, loss-side match then defeated Rumi Brown, Denise Reeve, Nicole Fleming and Cheryl Sporleder to draw Gyftopoulos. Monaco drew Tina Scott, who'd defeated Kassandra Bein 7-2 and Delia Mocanu 7-5 to reach her.
McFeaters got by Gyftopoulos 7-5, and missed out on a re-match versus Monaco when she (Monaco) was defeated by Scott 7-5. McFeaters completed her loss-side run with her best match of the tournament, defeating Scott in the quarterfinals 7-2.
Shea, though, stepped up in the semifinals. She shut McFeaters out (her second shutout of the tournament; Corr had only one) and turned for a second shot at Corr. Corr upped her game, as well, allowing Shea only a single rack in the finals to complete her undefeated run and claim the second JPNEWT title of the 2015 season.
