Melissa Rushton and Piper Iwan
To kick off The West Coast Women’s Tour’s sixth stop of 2024, a strong thirty-six player field turned out to compete at Family Billiards in San Francisco, CA on October 19. This double-elimination 9-ball event also served as a qualifier for the upcoming WPBA Capital City Invitational in Concord, NH. While the majority of the players on the tour are California-based, it was Melissa Rushton from Auburn, Washington who made an impressive first appearance on the tour at Family Billiards to land the victory. Rushton, who plays on the Northwest Women’s Pool Association Tour and recently claimed a regional win, will also be representing Team Washington as the sole female player in the upcoming Northwest Cup.
In Rushton’s run to the top, she began with some solid victories on the winner’s bracket, defeating Carla Macias (5-2), Alice Loo (5-1), and Lela Andrews (5-1), before she came up short in her final four battle against Family Billiards-based Piper Iwan, who won by a score of 5-4. Meanwhile, the other final four pairing on the right side of the bracket featured a shutout win for former tour champion Khanh Ngo over tour regular Motoko Siguenza (5-0). This result set up a “hot seat” face off between Ngo and Iwan, which ended up being a close fight where Piper Iwan came out on top (5-4) to secure a place in the final.
On the loss side, Melissa Rushton began her fight to the top with a 3-0 win over Gigi Callejas, which sent her on to the quarterfinal. Meeting her there was Lela Andrews, who previously came away with a 3-2 win over Motoko Siguenza. Rushton stayed strong in her second time facing Andrews, winning with a 3-0 shutout score. While Lela Andrews had to settle for a fourth-place finish, she would turn out to be the player awarded the WPBA qualifier spot as well as an additional cash prize to assist in travel expenses.
For the semifinal, Rushton took on the tour’s #2-ranked player and winner of stop one, Khanh Ngo, and won decisively by a score of 3-1. This set Melissa Rushton up for a rematch in the final against Piper Iwan, in a true double-elimination format. The first set of the final was closely contended, and Iwan reached the hill first. However, Rushton made a long 9-ball bank to tie the set hill-hill and carried that momentum into the next game and the final set. At the end of the day, the final scores landed at 5-4 and 3-1 for Melissa Rushton to claim her comeback victory. Piper Iwan had an impressive performance throughout the day to take runner-up and earn her top finish ever on the tour.
When she reflected on what helped her succeed throughout the day, Rushton explained, “I think that I had a strong break and that I played some pretty good safeties when I needed to. I think at times, taking a little more time made me played well in the pressure moments.”
While the main event was continuing into the later rounds, the second chance tournament was held for those players eliminated early. In this single-elimination tournament with thirteen players, Gaby Benuto took down the win while Jaime Dizon finished second and the third-place tie went to Kacie Ragen and Jennifer Ali.
The West Coast Women’s Tour would like to thank Family Billiards owner Delbert Wong Jr. for opening up the room for the event along with his staff for the great service throughout the day. The tour would also like to thank tour sponsor Robbie Lyng of IRL Custom Cues & Repairs for adding $500 to the player fund, along with Realtor Adam Stickles and DVPL Leagues for their ongoing support and donations. If you’re interested in becoming a tour sponsor, send an email to twcwtour@gmail.com
The final tour stop of the 2024 season will be held on November 2 at Jimmy’s Billiards in Milpitas, CA. For more tour news and updates, visit them at facebook.com/twcwtour
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