Jia Li and the tour director of the J. Pechauer Northeast Women's Tour (JPNEWT), Linda Shea, got together for a little reunion on the weekend of June 21-22. Last year (October in Dickson City, PA), they'd met in the finals of a JPNEWT stop, with Li coming out on top, winning her second straight stop on the tour, on her way to three in a row. Li started 2014 with a WPBA Regional Tour Championship victory in January, finished 25th in the WPBA Masters, and fifth in the Super Billiards Expo Women's Championship before running into Shea at Stop # 2 on the JPNEWT in May. Li, who'd been sent to the losers' bracket early in that event, won seven on the loss side before meeting up with Shea in the semifinals. Shea came out on the top in that one, before falling to Karen Corr in the finals (Corr won 42 of 44 games she played in that event). At this most recent event, Li and Shea met twice; once in the hot seat and again, in the finals. Li won both matches to claim the $1,000-added event title that drew 22 entrants to First Break Cafe in Sterling, VA.
Li and Shea advanced to meet in the hot seat match after scoring identical 7-3 victories over Cheryl Sporleder (Shea) and Meredith Lynch (Li). In their first of two, Li gave up only a single rack and sat in the hot seat waiting for Shea to get back from the semifinals.
On the loss side, Sporleder moved over to pick up Kathy Friend, who'd defeated Tina Scott 7-5 and Ji-Hyun Park 7-2, to reach her. Lynch drew Sueyen Rhee, who'd gotten by Nicole Nester 7-2 and Lai Li 7-1. Lynch got right back to winning work with a 7-5 victory over Rhee, as Friend was handing Sporleder her second straight loss 7-2.
Lynch defeated Friend in a grueling, hill-hill quarterfinal match, only to be defeated by Shea 7-5 in the semifinals. Jia Li completed her undefeated run through the field with a second victory over Shea in the finals 7-3.
