The sprawling facility of Metro Sportz Bar was the perfect atmosphere to kick of the AWBT's 10th Season!
31 Women came out to compete for over $1000 in prize money and more importantly, a paid spot into a WPBA Classic Tournament!
Newcomer Melinda Huang immediately stood out above all other competitors. Melinda, from Los Angeles, weathered a Greyhound and the Phoenix public bus system to get to this event and you could tell she meant business! She made it through the A-side with ease, beating all of her opponents by huge margins.
Meanwhile, Anne Gray was no slacker, she drove up all the way from Tucson and wasted no time beating her first 4 opponents as well.
Anne and Melinda met up for the first time in the 5th round for the hot seat. Melinda beat Anne, knocking Anne to the B-side. While Melinda waited patiently, Anne went on to play Susan Williams. Anne gathered her wits after the tough loss and beat Susan 7 to 5, which put Susan out at 3rd place with $163 in prize money.
Anne had fought her way back and was ready to take another shot at beating Melinda. Since this was a true double elimination tournament, Anne would have to beat Melinda in 2 sets of races to seven. Both ladies fought hard and played well and the first set was quickly tied at hill-hill. The last game of the first set started and Anne went to work, but made a costly mistake on the 5 ball, which left a really tricky run-out for Melinda. Melinda rose to the challenge and made the next 3 balls with ease, but left herself a really tough shot on the 8-ball. She gathered herself, focused, made the 8-ball perfectly and left herself perfect shape on the 9-ball for the win! Congratulations to Anne for an outstanding 2nd place finish and $221 in prize money! Congratulations to Melinda for an awesome 1st place victory, $326 in prize money and the paid spot into the West Coast Classic at the Viejas Casino in Alpine California March 30 through April 3rd!
A free second chance tournament was held on Sunday! 13 women came to play and have fun! The top 3 finishers were Meiko Yamanobe, (1st place and $64), Natalie Hostler (2nd place and $34), and Dawn Anderson (3rd place and $17).
There were also a bunch of door prizes given out over the weekend! Congratulations to the following winners: Marney Teague won the J. Pechauer Cue valued at $280, Justine Karber won the Player Cue and Case valued at $110 donated by The Billiard Store, Anne Gray won the CD Player Boom Box valued at $79, Justine Karber won the Radio Cooler valued at $20, JR Flores and Melinda Huang won hats valued at $15 and Chris Adams won a glow-in-the-dark travel bag worth $20!
The AWBT would like to give a GREAT BIG thank you to Metro and all the staff for a wonderful weekend! We'd also like to thank Anne Gray for donating $20 of her winnings back to the AWBT points fund! She is such a sweetie! Thank you!
We hope to see you all at our Scotch Doubles Fund raiser on February 19th at Time Out Lounge in Tempe! Remember - you must sign up before February 14th to receive $5 off of your entry fee!
Top Ladies from this event:
1st Melinda Huang $326
2nd Anne Gray $221
3rd Susan Williams $163
4th Tina Pawloski $116
5th/6th Susan Mello, Michelle Trevino $75
7th/8th Lisa D'Atri, Cathy Kelley $46
9th/12th Melissa Champion, Natalie Hostler, Justine Karber, Mary Moench $23
