HUNTER CLASSICS AMATEUR WOMEN'S TOURFarthest Traveler,
Xiaoting Pan, Wins Hunter Classics Stop! Photos by
Melinda
Hinojosa. All photos copyright of AZBilliards.com
Read
also the article by Carl
Miller, author of Stroke,
by clicking here.
The
Hunter Classics Amateur Women's Tour held its first stop of the
year Jan 14-15, 2006. Does a stop at the beginning of the year
hurt
attendance? Not at all - an amazing 66 women came to compete at
Legend's Billiards and Grill in Brenham, Texas! There
were many women who could have been in the finals, including Lisa
Marr Brannen from Arkansas, Amanda Lampert from San Antonio, Texas,
Anna Kostanian from Albuquerque, or Tara McCracken from Dallas, Texas,
just to name a few. However, this time the finals would play host
to
regular member Leslie Anne Rogers from the Dallas-area versus newcomer
Xiaoting Pan who came all the way from China.
On Sunday
morning, the 66 women were dwindled down to only 16. On the
winner's side, Helen Hayes won over Amanda Lampert 7-2; Anna Kostanian
lost a hill-hill match against Xiaoting Pan; Shayla Neris defeated
Monica Anderson 7-2; and Leslie Anne Rogers won hill-hill over Jennifer
Kraber. This left Xiaoting Pan to defeat Helen Hayes and Leslie
Anne
to get by Shayla to set up the first meeting between Xiaoting Pan and
Leslie Anne Rogers. At 6-6, Leslie Anne had two balls left and
missed
the 7-ball, but it stopped right behind the 9-ball. Xiaoting Pan
pulled out her jump cue again and easily jumped cleanly over the 9-ball
and made contact with the 7-ball, but did not pocket it. Leslie
then
made both the 7 and 9 for the 7-6 hot-seat win.
Lisa Marr
Brannen was a terror on the one-loss side, defeating Amanda
Lampert hill-hill, then Anna Kostanian 7-4, then Shayla Neris
7-2.
Orietta was on her own winning streak on the one-loss side and was able
to stop Lisa 7-6 to put her in 4th place. Orietta then lost her
next
match to Xiaoting Pan 7-5, handing Orietta a 3rd place finish.
Pan,
who can came from China to try and win some WPBA qualifiers, had large
crowds watching her every move all weekend long. It was apparent
after
only a few matches that she was used to the attention; more noticeable,
though, was her talent. She plays extremely well - mean safes, a
hard
break for such a little lady, along with jumping and kicking balls
exceptionally well, and of course her shot selection and pocketing of
balls was impressive.
Xiaoting Pan
needed to defeat Leslie Anne Rogers two sets in this
double elimination tournament to take home the first place prize of
$750 and the WPBA Qualifier for the March WPBA event in Michigan.
Xiaoting Pan took care of business and won both sets, 7-4 and
7-3.
Pan will be at the Ladies Spirit Tour stop next weekend and she may
come to the Hunter Classics tournament in March at Magoos in Tulsa, OK
where the qualifier will be for the Pro 9-Ball Championships in Vegas
in May!
