Molina Ortiz and Hsin Huang (Photo courtesy Sandro Menzel)
She hit two ‘speed bumps’ on the road to her fourth victory on the 2023 Northwest Women’s Pool Association Tour. Molina Ortiz had won the first two and last (fifth) stop on the tour before settling in to Ox Billiards in Seattle, WA with 39 other competitors this past weekend (Nov. 4-5). She went undefeated to win her fourth at the tour’s season finale and awards banquet, which acknowledged her as the Tour Champion for the second straight year. Were it not for the aforementioned ‘speed bumps,’ she would have concluded her undefeated run (through four of the six matches she actually played) with an aggregate game score of 20-3. The ‘bumps’ were associated with two matches against the event’s runner-up, Hsin Huang, who challenged her double hill, twice, and turned her final aggregate score into 34-15.
Ortiz, awarded a bye in the opening round, began with a shutout over Kira North and a 5-1 victory over Aimee Wilson-McDonnell, after which she advanced to her first match against Huang in one of the winners’ side quarterfinals. They played the first of two, double hill matches in which Ortiz prevailed, this first time, advancing to a winners’ semifinal against Linda Massey.
In the meantime, Marian Poole, who came into the event as the tour’s #6 competitor in the standings, was making her own ‘statement’ in the early rounds. She came into the other winners’ side semifinal with an aggregate score of 15-2. After her bye, Poole gave up just a single rack to both Andi Beebe and Sue Leger, before shutting out Andy Camping and advancing to the other winners’ side semifinal against Suzanne Smith.
Ortiz gave up another single rack to Massey and advanced to the hot seat match. Poole got locked up in a double-hill fight versus Smith, but prevailed to join Ortiz in the winners’ side final. Ortiz gave up yet another single rack, to Poole, and claimed the hot seat.
Massey moved to the loss side and picked up Melissa Rushton, who’d lost a double-hill, opening match to Maryann McConnell and then won six straight, giving up (though not in match order) a single rack to both Wilson-McDonnell and Camping, none at all to Mikayla Jones and won three matches, double hill, against Sheila Rogers, Kim Jones (back to back) and Gigi Callejas.
Huang, in the meantime, followed her loss to Ortiz with 5-2 victories over Jing Liu and Kathie MacDonald (#2 in the standings and the winner of Stop #3). Huang drew Suzanne Smith, coming over from the winners’ side semifinal.
Huang got into the quarterfinals with a 5-1 win over Smith. She was joined by Massey, who’d stopped Rushton’s loss-side streak at six, though not before Rushton had put up a double-hill fight to keep it going.
Huang stopped Massey’s loss-side winning streak at one, downing her 5-1 in those quarterfinals. She advanced to defeat Poole 5-3 in the semifinals and earned a second shot at Ortiz, waiting for her in the hot seat.
They doubled their pleasure, doubled their fun, as Ortiz concluded her undefeated run. They’d played nine games battling for the hot seat and (almost) doubled that to 17 playing in the final.
They’d played a single game to determine the winner in both and Ortiz came out on top, both times.
“It was a tight, neck-and-neck finals match,” noted tour representatives, “with all of the spectators on the edge of their seats.”
A Second Chance tournament was won by Kira North, who defeated Stephanie Drakulic in the finals.
The Awards Banquet, held on-site, acknowledged all of the year’s players and supporters who helped to set new tour records for overall turnout, payouts and streaming viewership. By the conclusion of this past weekend’s tournament and festivities, 145 different women had played in at least one 2023 event.
As noted earlier, Molina Ortiz secured the Tour Champion Award, while Kathie MacDonald won Player of the Year honors. Kristi Palmer was the tour’s Rookie of the Year, while Evie Hazlett was its Most Improved Player. Presidents Awards were earned by Tyrel Datwyler (streaming services) and Sandro Menzel (photography).
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