Whitman comes from the loss side to capture Women's title
Jundel Mazon of the Philippines has been among the top 10 finishers in 10 events this year, including a stop on the Q City 9-Ball Tour (2nd), the NC State 8-Ball Championships (3rd), the Gotham City Classic (7th), the US Open 9-Ball Championships, the 4th Annual Steinway Classic, the Houston Open and 42nd Annual Texas Open (all 9th), but he has only won twice, both times on the Action Pool Tour. In September, he defeated Brandon Shuff in the finals to take the APT's seventh tour stop. On the weekend of November 14-15, he defeated Shuff a second time in the finals to take the tour's ninth stop and become the second player to win the VA State 8-Ball Championships, which drew 36 entrants to Diamond Billiards in Midlothian, VA.
In a concurrently-run Women's event,
Kim Whitman won three on the loss side to meet and defeat
Barbara Yeager in the finals to become the second VA State 8-Ball Women's champion. The Women's event drew nine entrants.
Mazon's path through the 36-entrant field avoided a confrontation versus the event's defending champion,
Mike Davis, who was sent to the loss side by
Danny Green in the third round, and eliminated by Nilbert Lim in the matches that determined the tie for seventh. Following a bye and a second round shutout over Luther Pickerall, Mazon did have to face the APT's top-ranked player,
Shaun Wilkie (runner-up to Davis in 2013) in a match that went double hill, before advancing Mazon to a match versus Green. He defeated Green to face
Larry Kressel in a winners' side semifinal. Shuff, in the meantime (third in 2013), faced
Reymart Lim.
Mazon downed Kressel 7-5, as Shuff was sending Lim over 7-3. In their first of two, Mazon defeated Shuff 7-2 and sat in the hot seat, waiting for him to get back.
On the loss side, Kressel picked up Nilbert Lim, who'd just eliminated
Cary Dunn and Davis, both 6-4. Reymart Lim ran into Danny Green, who'd defeated
Brian Dietzenbach and
Shannon Fitch, also both 6-4. Lim battled to double hill before being ousted by Green, who, in the quarterfinals, met Kressel, who'd shut Lim out. Green and Kressel battled to double hill before Green advanced for a shot against Shuff in the semifinals.
Shuff took the semifinal match versus Green 6-2 and got a second shot at Mazon in the hot seat. To no avail, as Mazon took the extended, single race 9-2 to capture the VA State 8-Ball Championships title.
In the Women's event, unattended by the 2013 winner and runner-up (
Cheryl Pritchard and
Jackie Rivera) Kim Whitman and Barbara Yeager battled twice for the title; once in a winners' side semifinal and again, in the finals, in two very different kinds of matches. The small field dictated that a single match put both of them into the winners' side semifinals; Whitman had defeated
Sierra Reams 6-4 and Yeager had shut out Soo Emmett.
Sheri Bruner and Jacki Duggan, in the meantime, squared off in the other winners' side semifinal.
Duggan advanced to the hot seat match with a 6-2 victory over Bruner, and was met by Yeager, who'd shut Whitman out. Yeager claimed the hot seat 6-3 over Duggan and waited for what turned out to be the fateful, and quite different second match against Whitman.
On the loss side, Bruner picked up Reams, who'd defeated Emmett 5-2. Whitman drew
Nicole Fleming, who'd eliminated
Tina Scott 5-3. Bruner and Whitman advanced to quarterfinals; Bruner 5-2 over Reams and Whitman 5-3 over Fleming. Whitman gave up only a single rack to Bruner in the quarterfinals, and completely shut out Duggan in the semifinals. In sharp contrast to their meeting in the hot seat match, Yeager and Whitman fought to double hill before Whitman prevailed to take the Women's title.
