Briana Miller and Christine Pross
Briana Miller has been something of a juggernaut on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour since she returned to competition on the tour in 2022. Later in the year, after agreeing to take over from the tour’s retiring director, Linda Shea, she began to assume increasing degrees of responsibility for the tour’s activities and in January of this year became its official director.
juggernaut – a massive, inexorable force, campaign, movement or object that crushes whatever is in its path (Merriam-Webster)
Her ongoing string of event victories (11 of 13 events) began with the season opener in 2022, when she defeated Caroline Pao in the finals. She would go on to win five more of seven in which she competed and splitting the top two prizes with Karen Corr in the season finale which became, in effect, the first step in the JPNEWT’s version of a peaceful ‘transfer of power.’ Miller has won five of the eight 2023 stops so far and split a fifth with Kia Burwell. This past weekend (Oct. 21-22), she went undefeated in one of the tour’s newly-initiated (by Miller) series of round robin events, leading to a second-day (Sunday) single-elimination bracket of six. The $1,000-added event round robin/single elimination event drew 22 entrants to Eagle Billiards in Dickson City, PA.
Originally split up into four ‘flights,’ two with six competitors and two with five, four players with the most match wins in their flight would automatically advance to the single-elimination bracket. Two other competitors drawn from the overall match statistics of the four flights would advance as ‘wild cards,’ creating a six-player, single-elimination bracket. Two of those six would receive opening round byes in the three-round march to the winners’ circle.
It was Miller and Christine Pross who earned those two, opening-round byes in single-elimination play. Each had emerged undefeated from the round robin phase of their flights. Miller had chalked up four 6-2 wins and a shutout. Pross survived a double-hill challenge by Christina Raimer in the opening round of her flight. She would move on to win two 6-2 matches and one 6-4 match. As one of the flights with only five players, Pross was awarded a round robin bye.
Advancing automatically from the other two ‘flights’ were Joella Thomson and Melissa Jenkins. Thomson lost only one of her five matches (4-6 to Colleen Shoop), while Jenkins (in a five-player flight, with a bye) lost one of her three (double hill to Michaela Semon). Shoop picked up one of the ‘wild card’ slots, while Giovanna Napolitano picked up the other one to round out the single-elimination, first money-round field of six.
Shoop forfeited out of her match against Thomson, who advanced to face Miller in the semifinals. Napolitano downed Jenkins 8-3 and drew Pross in the other semifinal. In two distinctively different semifinal matches, Miller and Pross advanced to face each other in the finals. Miller shut out Thomson, while Pross and Napolitano locked up in a double-hill match that eventually sent Pross to face Miller.
It would become Pross’ third double-hill match of the event and Miller’s one and only. Miller completed her fifth win on the 2023 JPNEWT and her 11th since January, 2022 by dropping the last 9-ball at the 8th stop on the tour.
Miller, in her role as tour director, thanked the ownership and staff at Eagle Billiards for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore, Onboard Sportswear, PA Pro-Am Pool, Mezz Cues and George Hammerbacher (Advanced Pool Instructor). The next stop on the JPNEWT, scheduled for this weekend (Oct. 28-29), will be the $1,500-added 2023 Pennsylvania State Women’s 8-Ball Championship, in collaboration with PA Pro-Am Pool. The event will play out on the 9-ft. tables of Bluegrass Billiards in Philadelphia, PA.
0 comments