35 women from all over the Southwest and even Canada came out to Metro Sportz Bar to play for the WPBA Qualifier and $1240 in prize monies!
The top 8 ladies emerged as Sunday started. On the A-side pitted Rachael Abbink from Ontario Canada against Bonnie Plowman from Longmont Colorado; and Kristin Haney from Prescott Arizona against Holly Sholes from Tucson. The B-side started with Julie Nogiec from Las Vegas against hometown girl Susan Mello, and two hometown gals Susan Wilbur against Susan Williams.
One by one the best of the best were eliminated until there were two contestants left. Rachael Abbink and Bonnie Plowman. Rachael easily won her way to the hot-seat by beating all of her opponents by huge margins. Well, all of her opponents except one - Her closest match had been the match that started Sunday off, which was against Bonnie in the 8th round!
Bonnie had easily won all of her matches that day as well, up until she met up with Rachael! Rachael had won the earlier match, which knocked Bonnie to the B-side. Bonnie then met up with Holly Sholes for 3rd place and for another shot at the title. The match between Holly and Bonnie was a tough one. Holly had started off to a quick 4 to 2 lead, but Bonnie fought back. Holly got to the hill first with the score 6 to 4. But again Bonnie fought back and won the next 2 tying up the match hill-hill. Holly made an uncharacteristic, heartbreaking mistake and missed the 9-ball, which Bonnie made to win the match!
So it was again Bonnie against Rachael - this time for all the glory! We all knew we were in for a treat by seeing these two come head to head once more! This time however, the match up was much different. The first couple of games went back and forth and the score was 2 to 2. But from then on, the match was all Rachael. It was if she couldn't miss! And in the rare cases when she didn't have a good option on the table, she'd play an awesome safe. There were a couple shots when Bonnie could've taken advantage of the table, but Bonnie made some uncharacteristic mistakes which would inevitably cost her each game. Rachael won the next 5 games in a row, and won the match 7 to 2! Congratulations to Bonnie for an outstanding 2nd place finish and $230 in prize money!
A huge congratulations goes out to Rachael for the victory, the $335 in prize money and the paid spot into the WPBA Midwest Classic Event in July in Peoria Illinois! It was a real pleasure watching these two women play! They are both such awesome, amazing players it was fun just watching their talent! Good luck in Illinois Rachael! We'll all be routing for you!
The AWBT also held a free second chance event on Sunday and 14 women came back to participate! Congratulations to Michelle Trevino for 1st place and $75, to Mary Moench for 2nd place and $40 and to Pearl Napa for 3rd place and $20! Not too shabby for a free tourney and an extra day of practice! Woo hoo!
A BIG HUGE thank you goes out to Chris and all the staff at Metro Sportz Bar! It's such an awesome bar with fantastic tables and wonderful food and we had a wonderful weekend!
We look forward to seeing all of you at our next tournament which will be a 9-ball WPBA Qualifier to be held at Sixshooters on 35th and Peoria on July 22nd and 23rd!
Top 16 Finishers:
1st 335.00 Rachael Abbink
2nd 230.00 Bonnie Plowman
3rd 170.00 Holly Sholes
4th 119.00 Susan Wilbur
5/6 77.00 ea Kristin Haney, Julie Nogiec
7/8 46.00 ea Susan Mello, Susan Williams
9/12 23.00 ea Melinda Huang, Noel Rima, Bernie Store, Michelle Trevino
13/16 12.00 ea Melissa Champion, Teresa Eibner, Linda McBride, Mary Moench
