Stacy Novack and Angel Paglia
A field of 29 players helped the Arizona Women's Billiards Tour kick off their 2012 season at Bullshooters in Phoenix, Az.
The event was a qualifier for the WPBA's US Open and as would be expected for a qualifier, the event drew a fair share of players from out of state looking for that coveted WPBA invite. The field included the usual Vegas contingent as well as players from Minnesota, Illinois and California.
To most everyone's surprise, the Vegas contingent who dominated the tour in 2011, did not fare as well in this event. Stacy Allsup went "two and out" with losses to Kristen Haney and Susan Wilbur. Rebecca Wagner fared better, but bowed out in 5th place after back to back losses to Angel Paglia and Nina Tagley on Sunday.
After the 7-6 win over Wagner, Paglia then scored a 7-5 win over California's Stacy Novack to the take the hot-seat.
Novack bounced back with a 7-5 win of her own, over Arizona's Kristen Haney and the rematch with Paglia was on for the finals.
Paglia took control of the extended final match early and held a 7-4 lead in the race to nine match. Novack dug down and made a run to get within one rack at 8-7 before Paglia finally ended the match with a 9-7 victory.
Paglia earned $315 for first place, in addition to the paid entry into the WPBA US Open. Novack settled for $215 in prize money.
While the event was originally billed as a $300 added event, it turned out that a total of $700 was added by the end of the weekend. The host location added $400 and another $300 was added by Jose Gonzalez and two anonymous contributors.
The AWBT's next event will be April 14th and 15th at Stingers in Phoenix.
