Kevin
and Gary Welling of G-Cue Billiards in Round Rock,
Texas were exceptional hosts to the Hunter Classics Amateur Women’s
Tour’s
sixth stop of the 2006 season the weekend of July
15-16.At the last minute, Gary and Kevin stepped in and hosted the
event when
the previous location had to cancel.Thank you, Gary and Kevin!
Forty-five
ladies came to compete in the tournament and were
ready to play for the top first place prize of $750 and also the WPBA
Qualifier
which was up for grabs for a WPBA 2007 event.On the beautiful fourteen 9-foot ball-return Brunswick
tables, the ladies were out to battle and battle they did.They fought hard all day Saturday and when
Saturday play was over, twelve players would return to continue the
main event
competition on Sunday.In the end, the
2006 Hunter Classic’s Tour Most Improved Player, Heather Lloyd from Austin,
Texas captured the title and the
WPBA
Qualifier.Heather exclaimed after the
tournament, “I can’t believe I won!”She
was extremely happy and had a non-stop smile on her face as she hugged
her
husband, brother-in-law, and close friends.Being from Austin,
there
were a lot of friends watching and she said, “I have so much support
from my
husband and friends and it was nice to win a Hunter Classics Tour event
in
front of them.”
On
Sunday morning, the winner’s side matches resulted with
Cristina De La Garza defeating Deanna Henson hill-hill (both from Austin)
while Jennifer Kraber from Austin
lost 7-4 to San Antonio’s
Sophie
Lopez.Sophie and Cristina then played
the all important hot seat match and Sophie came out the winner 7-4.Then Sophie had to wait to see who her
opponent would be in the finals.
9th-12th
place finishers were Deedra
Trammell (her highest Hunter tour finish ever), Sharon O’Hanlon,
Melinda
Hinojosa and Belinda Lee all who earned $80.7th/8th places were filled by Leslie Anne Rogers
and Kyu Yi who both earned $105, while 5th/6th places
were filled by Jennifer Kraber and Deanna Henson who earned $150.Exceptional play was performed by everyone.
Jennifer Kraber and
Deanna Henson (5th/6th) and Kyu Yi and Leslie
Anne Rogers (7th/8th)
Each
of the top 4 finishers of this tournament marked their
highest finish to date on a Hunter Classics Tour event:
Terry
Petrosino from Houston
placed 4th and earned $225.Terry has been having a great year and she started this
tournament by
defeating two heavy hitters in a row on Saturday morning.She defeated Belinda Lee (7-6) and Leslie
Anne Rogers (7-2) before being derailed to the one-loss side by board
member
Melinda Hinojosa (5-7).Then she
defeated board member Monica Anderson (7-2) and the always tough Tara
McCracken
(7-3).When she returned on Sunday,
Terry was still shooting awesome.She
won a close one against Deedra Trammell (7-6), recent Fast Eddie’s Tour
event winner
Kyu Yi (7-4) and sharp shooter Deanna Henson (7-4).Terry’s run was stopped, though, by a
determined Heather Lloyd (3-7).
Cristina
De La Garza from Austin
placed 3rd and earned $370 for her outstanding play.Cristina defeated Kat Asbury (7-3), Lisa
Miranda (7-6), Tara McCracken (7-4), and Melinda Hinojosa (7-5) all on
Saturday.Then she defeated Deanna
Henson in a tight match 7-6 on Sunday.Cristina next ran into Sophie Lopez for the hot seat and was
sent to the
one-loss side 4-7.She then played
eventual winner Heather Lloyd and lost 2-7 for a fantastic third place
finish.
Sharp
shooter and tough opponent Sophie Lopez placed 2nd
and earned $550.Sophie has been having
an awesome year by winning the 2006 BCA & ACS
Texas Women’s Singles championship and placing 3rd at the
Women’s
Open Singles in Las Vegas.She competed in her first Hunter stop for
this year and she was shooting her way to the finals.Sophie defeated Sherri A. Smith (7-4),
Catherine Naes (7-4), Kawania Watson (7-2), Deedra Trammell (7-1),
Jennifer
Kraber (7-4) and Cristina De La Garza (7-4) before meeting up with
Heather in
the finals.
Sophie Lopez (2nd), Terry Petrosino (4th), Cristina De La Garza (3rd)
and Heather Lloyd (1st)
Even
eventual winner Heather Lloyd placed her highest finish
yet.Heather has had three second place
finishes on the Hunter Classics Tour in 2005 and no title, but by the
end of
this tournament, that would be old news.Heather started off with a bye, but lost her very first match to
Deanna
Henson (2-7).That loss didn’t deter
Heather and in front of her hometown crowd she was on a mission and
surged
through the one-loss side, defeating Nancy French (7-2), Snowy Belt
(7-4),
Melinda Hinojosa (7-4), Leslie Anne Rogers (7-4), Jennifer Kraber
(7-5), Terry
Petrosino (7-3), and Cristina De La Garza (7-2) to meet Sophie Lopez in
the
finals.
Heather
would need to defeat Sophie two sets to win the
tournament and the first place prize and the WBPA Qualifier which were
both on
the line.Tied at 3-3 in the first set,
it looked like either player would win it, but Heather pulled ahead 7-5
to
claim the first set to get even closer to the title.The second set wasn’t as close and at 6-1,
Sophie didn’t give up and nailed a tough cut on the 9-ball to gain
another game
at 6-2.In the next game, Heather had a
tricky 7, 8, and 9-ball left.Heather
studied the thin shot on the 7-ball for a long time; maybe longer than
any shot
all weekend.She would get down, get
back up.Look again, get back down, then
get up.She had a very small window to
just miss the 8-ball to get the 7-ball into the corner pocket, but once
she
committed to the shot, she made it look easy and nailed it.She then shot the 8-ball and 9-ball in the
same corner pocket and won the second set 7-2!After a long run on the Hunter Classics tour, Heather won her
very first
tournament on the tour.
Heather
exclaimed the next day from her cell phone, “I still
can’t believe it; I’m so excited.I
struggled all day on Saturday and I usually get exhausted on the
Sundays of my
tournaments, but this time I remained calm and positive and focused on
playing
one ball at a time.It was great and
very exciting.” Heather has been working on relaxation techniques and
focusing
on a positive attitude.“I’m trying to
work on being happy for me, happy for my opponent and living in the
moment,”
said Heather.Heather went on to say she
has been playing in a lot of back to back tournaments and maybe the
frequent
competitiveness helped her, as well.Heather added, “I pay the WPBA Qualifier fee just
in case and this time it worked out.”
Heather Lloyd
At
the June Hunter Classics tournament, tour member Jillian
Valles won the always beautiful $1,800 Hunter Classics Custom Cue and
at this
event in Round Rock, Texas, another tour member Melissa Khoung won the
beautiful $1,800 Hunter Classics Custom Cue!
Thanks to Shayla Neris, view the video of the drawing by
clicking HERE (2 MB).
Other
drawings included a pair of beautiful earrings from Cristina De La
Garza and a drawing for someone's $30 entry fee free. Sue Chong
won the beautiful earrings (thank you Cristina!) and Belinda Lee
won a free entry fee into this event.
View
numerous photos from this event HERE
and also the
updated point standings HERE.
A
BIG, BIG thank you to Wes Hunter who has been sponsoring
the Hunter Classics Tour for 13 years now!Thank you also to G-Cue Billiards, Royce Bunnell of the OB-1 Cue Shaft,
and all the ladies who came to compete!Visit us next month at Legend’s Billiards in League
City, TX August 19-20!
