It was a busy (June 26-29) weekend at Shooter's in Olathe, KS where the Midwest 9-Ball Tour held a three-headed tournament beast, featuring a $500-added, 22-entrant Ladies event, a $1,000-added One Pocket event that drew 44, and a $3,500-added 9-Ball Open tournament that drew 92 entrants. Shane McMinn and Nicole Keeney both came from the loss side and double-dipped the hot seat occupant of the 9-ball and Ladies event, respectively, about which we will go into some detail shortly.
Josh Roberts went undefeated to capture his third One Pocket title since March, and his second in as many weeks. It was something of a star-studded, final 12 in the One Pocket event, details of which will be covered in a separate story.
Ladies first, because it's polite, and because Nicole Keeney had to spend just a little more time on the loss side than Shane McMinn did in the male event; two more matches, to be precise. Keeney had been climbing her 2014 'finish ladder' since January, chalking up a 4th place finish in the Music City Classic in January, a 3rd place finish last week (June 21-22) in Florida at the Zingales' Amateur Ladies Tournament and was runner-up to Vivian Villareal in the Big Tyme Classic Women's 9-Ball event in Texas in March. In Olathe, KS, she made it to a winners' side quarterfinal before being sent on her loss-side trip by Carrie Williams in a double hill battle.
Williams moved on to face Rennae Hayes and won her second straight double hill match, putting her into the battle for the hot seat against Jessica Frideres, who'd defeated Deb McWhirk 7-1. Frideres grabbed the hot seat 7-2 in what proved to be her last win of the weekend.
Keeney, in the meantime, went to work on the loss side, downing Debbie Glover and Liz Lovely, both 7-5, to pick up McWhirk. Hayes drew Sabrina McCormack, who'd gotten by Kristin Prouty 7-1 and Sharon Rinkert 7-5. Keeney and McCormack moved on to the quarterfinals, once Keeney had eliminated McWhirk 7-4 McCormack had survived a double hill fight versus Hayes.
Keeney won two in a row 7-3; her quarterfinal match against McCormack, as well as her re-match against Williams in the semifinals. She took the opening set of the finals against Frideres 7-4, and though Frideres would put up a double hill fight in the second set, Keeney hung on to claim the Ladies title.
In the Open event, Shane McMinn picked up his second Midwest 9-Ball title of the year, having downed Skyler Woodward in the finals of the tour's third stop in March. He faced Woodward on this weekend, as well, at the start of his three-match, loss-side winning streak that put him into the finals.
McMinn faced Jordan Davis in one of the winners' side semifinals, as Danny Smith squared off against Robb Saez in the other. Davis sent McMinn to the loss side 9-6, and in the hot seat match, faced Smith, who'd downed Saez 9-5. Smith took the hot seat match, like Frideres, his last of the event 9-7.
McMinn and Woodward met up right away on the loss side. Woodward had gotten by John Gabriel and Chad Vilmont, both 9-4, to reach him. Saez drew David Matlock, who'd been defeated by Jordan Davis in a winners' side quarterfinal and then defeated Darryl Smith 9-6 and Cliff Joyner 9-3. McMinn defeated Woodward 9-4, while Matlock squeaked by Saez 9-8. McMinn ended Matlock's three-match, loss-side winning streak 9-7 in the quarterfinals and wreaked his vengeance on Davis 9-3 in the semifinals.
McMinn allowed Smith only a single rack in the opening set of the true double elimination final. He claimed the event title with a 9-5 win in the second set.
