(l to r): Jackie Rivera, Judie Wilson, Briana Miller, Sharon O'Hanlon, Kathy Friend & Linda Shea
In a circumstance about as rare as a teenager that doesn’t play video games, Linda Shea, tour director of the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour (JPNEWT) was shut out twice, in the hot seat and finals of her tour’s season finale. Briana Miller was the culprit. She went undefeated through a field of 17, on-hand for the $1,250-added ($500 from Coins of the Realm) event, hosted by Triple Nines Bar & Billiards in Elkridge, MD on the weekend of November 18-19.
Miller’s five-match trek to the event victory saw her win 35 of her 44 games. She gave up a single rack to Tina Marinelli in her opening round of play, and four to Carol V. Clark, which set her (Miller) up to face Judie Wilson in one of the winners’ side semfinals. Shea, in the meantime, who would finish with a 21-24 game record, got by Terri Stovall and Heather Platter, both 7-3, to draw Sharon O’Hanlon in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Miller sent Wilson to the loss side, as Shea was downing Hanlon, both 7-4. Miller chalked up the first of her two straight shutouts over Shea to claim the hot seat, and waited for Shea to get back from the semifinals.
On the loss side, Wilson and O’Hanlon drew two competitors in the middle of a three-match, loss-side winning streak. Wilson picked up Kathy Friend, who’d defeated Kia Sidbury 7-3, Melissa Jenkins 7-1 and Heather Platter 7-3. O’Hanlon drew Jackie Rivera, who’d gotten by Elaine Wilson 7-3, Eugenia Gyftopoulos 7-4 and Nicole King 7-2.
Friend and Rivera made it four in a row with identical 7-5 wins over Wilson and O’Hanlon, respectively. In the quarterfinals that followed, Rivera made it five loss-side wins in a row, defeating Friend 7-3.
Shea ended Rivera’s run with a 7-5 win in the semifinals. Miller claimed the season finale event title with her second shutout over Shea.
The win moved Miller up into third place (from eighth) in the tour’s season-end rankings, behind Shea, and Elaine Wilson, who, by virtue of her finish in the tie for 13th place, stayed just five points ahead of Miller in the final standings. Miller had competed in only three events this season, winning two of them and finishing as the runner-up (to Karen Corr) in the third. Rounding out the tour’s top-ten-ranked players were in order, from fourth place - Carol V. Clark, Nicole King, Kia Sidbury, Jenn Keeney, Jia Li, Sharon O’Hanlon and Judie Wilson.
