September 12th brought out 12 women to the Bay Area Amateur Tournament, held at Stroker's II in Tampa, Florida. Though it was a small field, it was filled with talent and a wide range of skill levels. A new winner emerged victorious and her name is Niki Rasmussen. Although new to the winners' circle, she is far from a new face on tour, having two 2nd place finishes last year, a 3rd and 5th/6th finish earlier this year.
Niki started out her day on the right foot by defeating point's leader, Michell Monk, and then continued her trek by defeating other notables; Sabra Macarthur Beahn, Patricia hall, and WPBA player Helene Caukin, to take Queen of the hill and an assured spot in the finals to await her opponent.
After her first round loss to Niki, Michell Monk went on a rampage tearing through her opponents on the one-loss side. She started out by defeating last month's winner, Melissa Morlan and other tough competitors such as Stephanie McFarlin, Patricia Hall, Bettina Chase and Helene Caukin, to set up her re-match with Nikki.
The finals started in the 8-ball set and never reached 9-ball. In the first game, Monk pocketed the 8 ball out of turn. From there it was all down hill for Monk, as the strategic safety play of Rasmussen proved to be too much. Rasmussen calmly studied each rack and decisively ran out with precision. She showed why she had reached queen of the hill, taking each rack, and winning 5-0 in the first set and taking her 1st BAAT win!
Congratulations to our other top finishing players: 3rd-Helene Caukin and 4th-Bettina Chase. Our ‘one-out-of-the-money' prize winners' were Jamie Toennies and newcomer Patricia Hall. Great Job!
Thanks goes out to Jose Delrio (owner) and his spectacular staff at Stroker's II for their professional hospitality and service.
A huge Thank you goes out to all of our wonderful sponsors that make this tour possible:
Lucasi Hybrid, Sterling Gaming, Stroke-It wear, Tiger products, Fury cues, Billiardscoop.com, Strok-in-style, Bayside pool service, Tweeten Fiber and Ray Martin.
