On Saturday, May 23rd, a beautiful Memorial Day
weekend in East Rutherford, NJ, the ladies of
the J. Pechauer Northeast Women's Tour could be
found heating up Castle Billiards with what is
no doubt some of the best women's pool in the
Northeast.
While many people were out enjoying the holiday,
39 of the toughest players from across the region
showed their dedication to the game, and turned
out to vie for a WPBA qualifier, including Megan
Smith (formerly Minerich), Holly Sholes, Pamela
Cimarelli (formerly Treadway) My-Hanh Lac, and
13-year-old phenom Briana Miller.
To follow up her 2nd place performance at the
Primetime Billiards stop, Pamela Cimarelli, who
is sponsored by Hot Shot Billiards in Deptford,
NJ, dominated this very strong field of players,
running undefeated through the weekend, to claim
the title.
There were numerous hard-fought battles throughout
this event, and nearly as many upsets from some
young breakthrough players. For one, Rhio Anne
Flores (Jersey City, NJ) had a standout performance,
defeating Maryann Giambanis (7-1), Sharon O'Hanlon
(7-1), and taking a strong 7-3 victory over My-Hanh
Lac.
In the following round, Rhio would fall to Megan
Smith (7-4), only to come back to beat Holly Sholes
(7-5) on the one-loss side, which landed her the
WPBA entry. However, Rhio was then ousted by My-Hanh
Lac in a one-sided 7-2 match. Ms. Flores, who
is currently ranked #8 on the tour, is not only
making her mark in the ladies' arena, but also
holds the #5 spot in the C+ class on the Tri-State
Tour.
On the other side of the bracket, up-and-comer
Borana Andoni ran through Janice Larocca (7-2),
Sherry Pouncey (7-4), Liz Persiano (7-3), to then
upset Erica Testa in a hill-hill trial by fire.
However, on day 2, Borana fought tooth-and-nail
against the firepower of Pamela Cimarelli, who
closed out the set 7-5.
However, outside of the upstarts, some of the
JPNEWT's strongholds were making their mark as
well. Megan Smith came through the winner's bracket
in true grinding fashion, with wins over Melissa
Jenkins (7-5), Holly Sholes (7-6), Linda Shea
(7-6), and Rhio Anne Flores (7-4).
This run would land her in the finals of the winner's
bracket against Pamela Cimarelli. In this match,
Pamela would keep an edge over Megan, who stayed
hot on her trail. With the score 6-5, Megan lost
the chance to go hil-hill after a fatal miscue,
and Pamela took the game along with the match.
One the one-loss side, a number of other strong
players battled it out to see who would come back
to compete on Sunday, Day 2 of this rigorous event.
Sunday Morning's Matchups:
My-Hanh Lac over Leslie Furr (7-3)
Briana Miller over Linda Shea (7-5)
Holly Sholes over Erica Testa (7-1)
Katie Cowan over Supadra Boonparsook (7-4)
Following that round, My-Hanh Lac then went on
to defeat 13-year-old Briana Miller, in a match
that swung back and forth, with the match staying
locked at 2-2, 3-3, and 4-4, but My-Hanh pulled
away to win 7-5. Holly Sholes also dominated over
Katie Cowan of Charlotte, NC with a 7-2 win. However
Katie had a strong performance in this event,
winning 5 matches on the one-loss side after a
2nd round loss to Erica Testa.
In the next round, coming off a winner's side
loss, Rhio Flores knocked out Holly in a match
that Holly came out leading 2-0. However, Rhio
would capitalize on Holly's mistakes in this hard-fought
match, to win 7-5, and claim the qualifier. My-Hanh
Lac would also eliminate Borana Andoni (7-1) after
her loss to Pamela Cimarelli.
After a one-sided 7-2 win over Rhio, My-Hanh would
match up with Megan Smith for the semi-final.
Both ladies had been playing strong throughout
the event, but Megan stormed ahead 5-2 in this
match, and with My-Hanh ending up hooked, a few
times, Megan kept control of the match to win
7-5.
The final was a rematch between the undefeated
Pamela Cimarelli & Megan Smith. The format
was a race to 7/9--since Pam was undefeated, if
she got to 7 first, she would win the match, but
if Megan got to 7 first, they would go to 9 games.
When the score was tied at 2-2, Pamela pulled
away to lead the match 4-2, and was looking confident.
This was a defining point in the match, as after
the players exchanged safeties, Megan made a thin-cut
3 ball while leaning over the 5-ball. This slightly
moved the 5, and the cue ball came around 2 rails
to pocket it, meaning the shot was interfered
with, giving Pamela ball-in-hand, to lead 5-2.
But Smith was not going down without a fight,
breaking and running out twice and making the
most of Cimarelli's errors, to tie at 6-6. In
the following game, Megan starts out with a safe
on the 1 ball and gets ball in hand, but can't
get a shot at the 2. They exchange safeties, but
after Pamela makes the 2, the 3 ball is still
tied up. Pam misses the safe, and Megan comes
back with a lock-up safe on the 4, forcing her
to foul. While it looks like smooth sailing for
Smith, she ends up with a long shot on the 8 and
misses, to turn the match over to Cimarelli.
Both of these top players had an impressive weekend,
and although Pamela commented that felt like she
did not play her best, it was clear that she was
the force to be reckoned with at this event.
Congratulations to all the ladies who came out
to Castle to compete!
The next stop on the JPNEWT will be held at Primetime
Sports Bar & Grill, in Sayreville, NJ, July
18-19, so make sure to come out to support these
talented players.
