Dana Aft and Liz Lovely
Back in January, when the Tiger Florida Tour was the Flamingo Tour, Dana Aft, from Atlanta, GA, made a trip south to compete in that tour's debut event. She went undefeated through a field of 39, and later, on her Facebook fan page, made a casual comment about the girls from Florida getting together sometime with the girls from Atlanta.
" I was really impressed with the level of play of all the Florida girls!!," is what Aft actually wrote. "I think they should take a road trip and meet the rest of the Atlanta girls sometime."
Betty (Sessions) Lea, from Atlanta, a long-time tour director read the comment and got the ball rolling, eventually communicating with Mike Zingale of Zingale's Billiards in Tallahassee to create the Zingale's Amateur Ladies Tournament, held on the weekend of June 21-22. Tom Gedris of Triple Cross Cues contributed a cue to the event, while Mike Zingale added a Predator Cue, and cookies from his mother, Linda. The $1,000-added (plus two cues and cookies) event drew 18 women from a variety of locations to Zingale's and was won by Ohio's Liz Lovely, who got by Atlanta's Dana Aft twice to claim the title. Betty Lea ended up winning the event's $250-added Second Chance Tournament, which drew 9 entrants.
In the main event, the two former junior champions, Lovely and Aft, advanced to the hot seat match, once Lovely had downed Autumn Duncan 9-5 and Aft had survived a double hill fight versus Nicole Keeney. Lovely took the first of two against Aft and waited in the hot seat.
Keeney and Duncan moved to the loss side, where they were met by Jeannie Seaver (one of the co-tour directors/creators of the event) and Roe Guarnero. Seaver had defeated Cheryl Pritchard 7-1 and Samantha Kikuchi, double hill. Guarnero had eliminated Betty Lea 7-5 and Jeannie Seaver's sister, Vanessa, double hill. Keeney and Duncan got right back to work; Keeney defeating Jeannie Seaver 7-4 and Duncan downing Guarnero 7-5.
Keeney took the quarterfinal match versus Duncan 7-2, to earn a re-match versus Aft in the semifinals. Aft, though, earned her second shot against Lovely with a 7-5 win in those semifinals. Lovely earned her $715, first-place prize, and a Predator Cue with a 9-6 win over Aft in the finals. Lea, in the second chance event, took home the $170 first-place prize and the Triple Cross Cue. In addition to $120 for her second-place finish in the Second Chance event, Samantha Kikuchi picked up a $50 gift certificate for Pool Dawg.
