Rebecca Wagner (Photo courtesy of Bob Beaulieu)
Rebecca Wagner made her way through a field of thirty one players to capture the first Arizona Women's Billiards Tour event of the 2013 season, but it was far from "the usual suspects" fighting it out with her at the end of the event.
The field of players was another strong one with representatives from Las Vegas and New Mexico, as well as players from Prescott and Tucson filling out the field. The usual top players including Wagner, Susan Williams, Stacy Allsup and Sara Miller were joined by notables including Bernie Store, Amanda Pulley, Leandrea Gaff, Ashea Erdahl and Susan Wilbur.
The brackets worked their way down to the typical final four of Wagner, Allsup, Williams and a random fourth player. This time, that fourth player was Amanda Pulley; who has been making her share of noise on the ladies pool scene recently. Pulley would score the upset, with a 7-4 win over Williams. Wagner would send Allsup to the left side of the board with a 7-3 scoreline.
The next match would see Wagner defeat Amanda in a 7-6 match for the hot-seat.
Known more for her bar-table game, Bernie Store proved that she also knew her way around the 9-foot table. After a first round loss to Allsup, Store had already won five straight matches - including wins over Jeri Engh, Jodie Villegas, Tracie Hamman and Sara Miller. Asst tour director Tres Kane summed it up as he commented "Bernie is a danger to win on any size table". Store wasn't settling for just cashing in this event as she went on to eliminate Susan Williams 7-5 and then Stacy Allsup 7-4 to earn a match against Pulley with the winner moving on to the finals.
The match between Bernie and Amanda started out close at 2-2, but Bernie took control and won the match 7-3 to eliminate Pulley in 3rd place.
The extended final match between Bernie and Rebecca was a back and forth match the whole way. Rebecca's 1-0 lead was quickly erased and Bernie took a 3-1 lead. Each player would fight back from deficits and the score would end up tied at 5-5 before Rebecca took control of the match and won the last four games for the 9-5 win and first place.
The second chance event was won by New Mexico's Rhea Brooks, who defeated Sara Sorg in the finals. Lynor Johnson and Alicia (Pocahantas) Streenz filled out the top four place in the second chance event.
The AWBT will be at Stingers in Phoenix on April 20th and 21st for their next event.
