32 women came to the Northern Lounge to play in the AWBT's 3rd stop tournament! It was definitely a fun-filled tournament with many exciting twists and turns of fate throughout the entire weekend!
Women from all walks of life came from all over the US to play in this 8-ball event! There were 5 women from Tucson, 1 from Cottonwood, 2 from California, and one lady even came all the way from New York to play with Arizona's finest!
Two women, hometown girl Susan Williams, and Tina Pawloski from San Diego, dominated this entire tournament.
Tina only lost 2 games in 2 days and easily earned her way to the hot seat! 3 of the 5 matches she played to get to the hot seat, were won by an amazing 4 to 0 victory!
Susan was knocked to the B-side in the very first round, but wasn't discouraged and fought her way through an extremely tough bracket, playing and winning game by game, match by match, beating her competitors with grace and conviction. She earned her way to challenge Tina for the victory.
The final match started. Since it was a true double elimination tournament, Susan would have to beat Tina in 2 sets of races to 4. The first set started and Susan took off to a quick 2 to 0 lead. But then Tina came back with a vengeance and won the next 3 games easily to put her on the hill. Susan had fought hard for 2 days and was not going to give up yet. She gathered her wits and won the next two games and the set 4 to 3. The 2nd set started, this set was for all the marbles. This time it was Tina who took an early lead. Seemingly before we could blink, Tina was ahead 3 to 1. Tina was on the hill and it looked like it was all over. Susan didn't seem rattled at all! She took some deep breaths and gathered her focus. Susan then played some terrific safeties and once again gained control and won the next two games. This tied up this last set 3 to 3. Everything now rested on this one, last game. Tina took solids and ran the first 5 balls easily, then made an uncharacteristic mistake and left herself snuggled up against the 1 ball. She had no choice but to try a safety, which left Susan coming to the table with 6 balls on the table and a very tough shot. Susan made the shot, then played an awesome safety, which left Tina unable to hit her ball. Susan came back to the table with 5 balls left, ball-in-hand, and not an easy out. She methodically made each ball, and left herself perfect shape on the next, until she was down to the 8-ball, which she sank with ease, winning the set, the match and the whole tournament!
Congratulations to Susan Williams for her very first AWBT 1st place tournament victory! She plays with the heart of a true champion! Speaking for all the spectators watching the final match, it was a joy to watch her play and win! She is one of the few players I have ever seen who never seems to get rattled and certainly never gives up when coming from behind in a match! Susan took home $304 in prize money and her personal best finish! Tina went home with $178 for 2nd place.
Rounding out the top 16 were: Justine Karber (3rd place $130); Susan Mello (4th place $91); Holly Ryan & Michelle Trevino (5th place $60); Traci Elliot & Anne Gray (7th place $36); Cassey Anderson, Diana Clayton, Melinda Huang & Margie Stephanik (9-12th place $18); Karen Burgess, Natalie Hostler, Mary Moench & Meiko Yamanobe (13-16th place $9).
13 women came back to play in the free 2nd chance event on Sunday! Congratulations for Natalie Hostler for taking 1st place and $68, to Kathy Phelps for taking 2nd place and $34 and for Barbara Allen for taking 3rd place and $18! This was all 3 of these ladies personal bests in any of the AWBT 2nd chance events!
The AWBT was extremely pleased to hold a raffle in which a Teague Custom Cue valued at $600 was raffled off! Congratulations to Barbara Allen for winning it! We are so proud to have Teague Custom Cues as a sponsor and are SO tickled to see Barbara win it! She deserves it! After all these years playing with the AWBT, she's never won anything! Congrats Barbara! We will be raffling off another one of these beautiful cues at the next tournament! Tickets are on sale now and will also be available for purchase at the next event for only $1!
During the wait between matches, we were lucky to have Kim Pfeifer with Warm Spirit on site offering complementary hand massages and chair massages for $1 per minute! She graciously donated 50% of the proceeds directly to the AWBT! We're so glad she was there! The massages were awesome! We look forward to seeing you at the next event Kim!
We would like to give a HUUUUGE thank you to Larry and all the people at the Northern Lounge! The tables are in awesome condition and played perfectly! The balls are all brand new, and the service was terrific! This is such a neat bar and a joy to play in! The karaoke on Saturday night was amazing! Those were some of the best singers we've heard! Thanks again Larry and your staff for making this a really fun event!
We hope to see you all at the next event which will be a 9-ball Qualifier at Sixshooters Peoria on June 18th and 19th!
