Kristin Haney
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The J. Pechauer Custom Cues Arizona Women’s Billiards Tour (AWBT) held its fifth stop at On The Snap in Prescott Valley, AZ June 9-10. The event had a field of 25 women from Arizona, California, Wisconsin, Nevada and Mexico most vying for the qualifier spot for the upcoming WPBA Florida Classic to be held in Hollywood, FL June 27-July 1.
Sunday saw Susan Mello vs. LeAndrea Gaff and Susan Williams vs. Holly Sholes on the A side of the bracket and Kristin Haney vs. Michelle Trevino and Hydred Makabali vs. Jeri Engh on the B side. Mello and Sholes both won their first matches of the day and met up for the hot seat match. As expected, it was a very tight match. Sholes made it to the hill first with the score 6-5 then quickly won the next game which won her the match and the hot-seat.
Mello played Haney for 3rd place. Sholes had already secured a spot to the WPBA Florida Classic at the last AWBT WPBA Qualifier, and Haney indicated she was not playing for the spot because of a schedule conflict therefore Mello won the spot by default for making it past 4th place. It was a tight match and after game 10 it was tied at 5. Haney put together some great runs, won the last two games and won that match 7 – 5.
The finals being a true double elimination format, Haney would have to beat Sholes in 2 sets - race to seven. The match started off rough for both girls. The first set was Haney all the way as Sholes made numerous uncharacteristic errors of which Haney fully capitalized. She easily won the first set 7-2. After a brief break, Haney won the lag and snapped the 9 on the very first break! This set was much closer as Sholes was now warm and both players pulled out all of their abilities. It was a see-saw match until a missed tough cut on the 8-ball allowed Haney back to the table for an easy two ball run to a 7-6 win.
Also on Sunday, the AWBT second chance tourney took place. Eight women participated.It was a battle of the AWBT board members as Kristie Ortega beat Kathy Phelps for the hot seat. Then in a state of deja-vu Phelps fought back on the one loss side to face Ortega once again. Ortega won in the race to 4 handily and took first.
The next AWBT stop, which is also for a WPBA paid qualifier spot is scheduled to be held July 14-15 at Sixshooters in Peoria, AZ.
