Karen Corr
Karen Corr started the 2015 year on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women's Tour the way she ended the 2014 season; on a winning note. In the $1,000-added season opener ($500 from Coins of the Realm) that drew 32 entrants to Triple Nines in Elkridge, MD on the weekend of March 7-8, Corr played 50 games of 9-ball and won 42 of them, including back-to-back 7-1 victories over tour director Linda Shea, who, as a result of playing in almost twice as many events as Corr during the 2014 season ended up as the tour's top-ranked player last year.
They met first in the hot seat match. Corr had gotten by Shanna Lewis, Susan Shinn (who had chalked up an event-best three racks against her), and Delia Mocanu (for a 21-4 record) to draw Nicole Monaco in a winners' side semifinal. Shea, in the meantime, had defeated Connie Eddins, Nicole Fleming, and Joy McFeaters-Haas (for a 21-10 record) and played Meredith Lynch. Corr defeated Monaco 7-2, as Shea was busy sending Lynch to the loss side 7-5. Corr took the hot seat 7-1 and waited on Shea's return.
On the loss side, Kim Whitman and Kia Sidbury were making some noise that would see them both win six on that side of the bracket and face each other in the quarterfinals. Whitman had defeated Sidbury 7-1 in the opening round, and then, herself, been sent over by Monaco in the second round.
Sidbury got by Melissa Jenkins (double hill), Lynn Richard, Eugenia Gyftopoulos, Mocanu, and Kassandra Bein to draw Lynch, coming over from the winners' side semifinal. In addition to wins over Judie Wilson and a shutout over McFeaters-Haas, Whitman survived two double hill matches, against Nicole King and Jia Li, to pick up Monaco. Whitman eliminated Monaco 7-3 to chalk up her fifth loss-side win, as Sidbury was chalking up her sixth in a 7-2 win over Lynch.
Whitman ended Sidbury's loss-side campaign 7-5 in the quarterfinals, and got a shot at Shea in the semifinals. Shea took that match 7-5 for her second shot against Corr, who repeated her hot seat performance, claiming the season opener 7-1.
