Matthew Rezendez, Joey Arruda, and Fabian Fernandez
For just over a year, the New England 9-Ball Series has been on a health-related hiatus which began in September of last year. Co-tour director Jennifer Berghelli suffered from COVID-19 complications, which required multiple surgeries and left her with a weakened immune system. According to tour representatives, including co-tour director Marc Dionne, Berghelli is “doing much better now and the tour is happy to be back.” They returned with an event that drew 33 entrants to Straight Shooters Family Billiards in Fall River, MA this past weekend (Sun., Oct. 15).
Matthew Rezendes, chalking up his first (recorded) victory on the tour in seven years, went undefeated to the hot seat. He and his vanquished foe in that match, Joey Arruda, who came back from a semifinal win over Fabian Fernandez, opted out of meeting for a second time in a final match and split the top two prizes. As the undefeated occupant of the hot seat at the time, Rezendes became the official winner of the NE 9-Ball Series’ first event in a little over a year.
The NE 9-Ball Series works with a split-bracket format, which first, pits lower- and higher-ranked competitors against each other in the early stages of the event. Rezendes, working in the upper bracket, got by Ryan Stevens 6-2, Soel Quinones Vargas 6-4 and Gene Hunt 6-1 to draw Mike DeMarco in one of the event’s winners’ side semifinals; in effect, the hot seat match of the upper bracket.
Arruda survived two, double-hill matches on his way to the lower-bracket hot seat match. He opened with a double-hill win over Bill McNeil, gave up only a single rack to Kevin Taylor and defeated Joseph Smith, double hill, to draw Billy Kamperides.
Rezendes defeated DeMarco 6-4, as Arruda sent Kamperides to the loss side 6-3. Rezendes played what proved to be his last match in claiming the hot seat 6-1 over Arruda.
DeMarco and Kamperides moved to the loss side and ran right into their second straight loss. DeMarco had drawn Xhuljano Kamxhiu, who’d won his two previous matches, double hill, over Gene Hunt and Van Sy. Kamperides picked up a rematch against Fabian Fernandez, whom he’d defeated in a (lower bracket) winners’ side quarterfinal 5-4 (Fernandez racing to 6). On the loss side, Fernandez then shut out Kevin Taylor and downed Bob Lucas 5-3 to draw the rematch.
Kamxhiu shut out DeMarco and in the quarterfinals, faced Fernandez, who’d successfully wreaked his vengeance on Kamperides 5-2. On a bit of a roll at this point, Fernandez put a stop to Kamxhiu’s loss-side run by allowing him only a single rack in those quarterfinals.
Arruda and Fernandez fought a double-hill battle in what would prove to be the event’s final match. Arruda prevailed in the semifinals and entered into negotiations with Rezendes to split the top two prizes, which completed the NE 9-Ball’s return to tour activity.
Tour directors Marc Dionne and Jennifer Berghelli thanked the ownership and staff at Straight Shooters Family Billiards for their hospitality, as well as sponsors USAPL New England, BEF, Fargo Rate, AZBilliards, Professor Q-ball’s National Pool and 3-Cushion News, MJS Construction, OTLVISE, Outsville, Cue Pocket LLC, and Just The Tip Cue Repair and Custom Accessories. The next stop (#2) on the New England 9-Ball Series, scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 12, will be a single-bracket (650 maximum Fargo Rate) event, hosted by Run ‘em Racks in Johnston, RI.
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