Twenty-six ladies galloped into Austin, TX. to play in the seventh stop on the Fast Eddie's 9 Ball Tour sponsored by Ray Schuler Custom Cues on July 9th. The action was hot and heavy over the day just like the weather.
Top picks were Amanda Lampert, Heather Pulford Lloyd, Kyu Yi, Jennifer Kraber, Michelle Cortez, Melinda Hinojosa, Helen Hayes, Cristina Delagarza and Deanna Henson as this was a very talented field filled with multiple Tour event winners.
The 5-6th placements went to multiple Tour event winner, Heather Pulford Lloyd, and Melinda Hinojosa, one of the top ladies with the Hunter Classic Ladies Tour. Both played great pool over the day.
The 4th place position went to Teedaa Clarke of San Antonio. Teedaa has that ability of relying on a lot of natural talent to play well as she rarely gets to practice due to the long hours of her job of administering her family's restaurant business in San Antonio. She lost her opening round match to Jennifer Kraber only to come back and fight her way through the one loss side for a great finish.
Third place went to the Tour's Lady point leader, Amanda Lampert, now living in Dallas. Royce Bunnell of OB-1 Shafts sponsors Amanda on the Tour. Her talent and the OB-1 shaft make a lethal combination at the table. Amanda cruised through the winner's bracket only to be derailed in her assault by Kyu Yi for the hot seat. On the one-loss side finals, she bowed to Sophie Lopez for a very nice third place finish.
Sophie Lopez of San Antonio is having a phenomenal year at the table. Earlier this year, she captured not only the Texas State BCA championship, but the ACS state championship as well. Sophie started her run with an opening round loss to Michelle Cortez. From there, she cut a path through the field winning eight matches in a row to end up in the finals.
Kyu Yi (pronounced 'cue') of San Antonio has been dedicating much more practice time at the table over the last few months and it shows as she won the last ladies' event in San Antonio in May. Kyu is very comfortable playing multi-rail shape with the cue ball and her new practice schedule has added great precision to this task. She cruised to the hot seat with victories over Sue Chong, Elvie Kompan, Jennifer Kraber, Heather Lloyd and Amanda Lampert.
With Kyu holding down the hot seat and Sophie coming off the one loss side, this set up for a great final match. The ladies traded games with Sophie reaching the hill first at 6-5. Kyu made a nice out to tie it up at hill-hill. In the final game, Kyu's explosive break was the deciding factor as she turned a nine ball rack into a game of six ball by making three balls on the snap. From there, she made an easy run out and grabbed her second championship in a row. Congratulations to both of these fine ladies!
A very warm thank you to all you ladies who have supported the Tour over the last three years. Y'all make every Sunday very special and you keep Lewis and Paul scratching their heads and on their toes. Again, thanks for being there!
A special thanks to Olhausen and Schuler Cues for allowing this to happen. Your ongoing support is simply tremendous. Thanks to Ron Geyer of the Custom Cue Connection, Jack and Elvie Kompan of Mystick Cues, Royce Bunnell of OB-1 Cueshafts, Tino Lopez of Teodora's Mini Tacos and Brian Hannah of MBN Billiards. This doesn't happen without all your great support. Thank to Fast Eddies and their staff for a great job. As always, you are a great host. Last, but hardly least, to Fast Eddies ownership and Mark 'Big Lew' Lewis for allowing this to happen.
Put in on the calendar. Our next event is in Houston on August 12-13th at the Fast Eddie's on I-45 South at Fuqua! Keeping knocking the backs of those pockets out!
Complete Results:
1st Kyu Yi $770
2nd Sophie Lopez $520
3rd Amanda Lampert $320
4th Teedaa Clarke $180
5th/6th Heather Lloyd, Melinda Hinojosa $75
