With two stops left on the 2010 Bay Area Amateur Tour (BAAT), 20 entrants gathered at Wally's Billiards in Lakeland, FL on Saturday, September 25 for a $400-added event with the tour's top ranking at stake. Less than 200 points, the point prize for a first-place finish, separated the tour's current top player – Niki Rasmussen – from the fifth-ranked player, Rachel Delaney. Both were on hand, as were Kelly Cavanaugh (# 2), Jessica Barnes (# 3), Sabra MacArthur Beahn (# 8) and Jamie Toennies (# 11). It was, however, ‘none of the above' who emerged to grab the hot seat, or the first place prize. It was, instead, Chris Fields (#24), who battled from the one-loss side to ultimately meet and defeat Shelly Harrison (not present in the standings ) in the finals. The victory moved Fields among the top 10 players on the 2010 tour.
From among the winners' side final four, Fields was moved west by Toennies 5-2, as Harrison was busy sending MacArthur Beahn over by the same score. Harrison gained the hot seat with a shutout victory over Toennies and waited for Fields.
On the one-loss side, Fields faced Cavanaugh in the first of the three wins that put her into the finals. Cavanaugh had defeated Susanne Cherkowsky 5-1 and Delaney 4-3 to reach her. MacArthur-Beahn squared off against Rasmussen, who'd been sent west from among the winners' side final eight by Toennies, and defeated Nicole Winters 7-2 and Barnes 6-3. Rasmussen shutout MacArthur-Beahn, as Fields was busy dropping Cavanaugh into the tie for fifth place 5-2.
In the quarterfinals that followed, Fields squared off against the tour's top player, Rasmussen, and left her in fourth place 5-2. She then went on to defeat Toennies in the semifinal re-match between the two 5-1. Fields and Harrison then opened up the two-set finals with a double hill struggle, won by Fields, that brought it down to a single match. Fields won the second set 5-2 to take home the top prize and move among the tour's Top 10.
Rasmussen maintained her top ranking on the tour standings, as did Cavanaugh and Barnes, in second and third place. Fields was the only new entry among the tour's Top 10 spots, moving ahead of both Barbara Ellis and Keva Hevener.
