Jia Li made her second appearance on the 2017 J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour (JPNEWT) on the weekend of October 14-15, and as she did in her first appearance in August, she won the event. In August, she had to negotiate three matches on the loss side before meeting and defeating hot seat occupant, Caroline Pao. At this most recent stop, she went undefeated, downing separate opponents in the hot seat match and finals. The $1,000-added event drew 16 entrants to Eagle Billiards in Dickson City, PA.
Following victories over Amanda Soucy 7-3, and Chari Slater 7-1, Jia Li moved into a winners’ side semifinal against the tour’s #1-ranked player, Linda Shea. Kia Sidbury, in the meantime, having defeated Morgan Steinman 7-3 and Colleen Shoop 7-2, moved on to face Melissa Jenkins in the other winners’ side semifinal. Li gave up only a single rack to Shea and advanced to the hot seat match. She was joined by Sidbury, who’d sent Jenkins to the loss side 7-4. Li claimed the hot seat 7-2 over Sidbury and waited for Shea to get back from her three-match trek on the loss side.
Shea opened her loss side campaign against Soucy, who, after being sent over by Li, defeated Judie Wilson 7-5, Shoop 7-4, and Elaine Wilson 7-2. Jenkins picked up Erica Testa, who’d been sent to the loss side by Shea and defeated Carol V. Clark 7-1 and Morgan Steinman 7-5.
Shea defeated Soucy 7-1, as Jenkins was eliminating Testa 7-3. Shea took the quarterfinal match over Jenkins 7-2, and then earned her re-match against Li, while denying Sidbury hers, with a 7-4 win in the semifinals. Li, though, completed her undefeated run with a 7-2 win over Shea in the finals.
The next stop on the JPNEWT will be the tour’s season finale. Scheduled for November 18-19, it will be hosted by Triple Nines Bar & Billiards in Elkridge, MD.
