Tara! Tara! Tara! – “Firecracker” Freight Train Keeps on Winning
Apr 28, 2016
Thirty-nine players showed up the weekend of March 19-20th at Legend’s Billiards in League City, TX to play in the second stop of 2016 on the OB Cues Ladies Tour. Top players from all over Texas and one new player from Alabama were gunning for the $775 first place prize in this event. With the awesome hospitality offered by Mindy and Craig Cohen and their staff, it was destined to be a great weekend of pool for all of the players.
It was a full day of action on Saturday as thirty-nine players were dwindled down to eight ladies in the main event. On Saturday night, the 9th-12th finishers were Jennifer Kraber, Monica Anderson, Michelle Cortez, and Alicia Stanley. Great job ladies!
Returning on Sunday, the final four in the winner’s bracket were Corina Campbell vs. Robyn Petrosino and Tara Williams vs. Amanda Lampert. The four ladies returning on the one-loss side were Orietta Strickland vs. Angie Payne and Jennifer Yo vs. Ricki Casper. Eliminated in the 7th-8th position was Jennifer Yo and Angie Payne, both of Austin, TX. This was Jennifer’s highest finish to date in an OB Ladies Tour event, Congratulations Jennifer! The 5th-6th places went to Amanda Lampert of Frisco, TX and Robyn Petrosino of Spring, TX; Congratulations Robyn on hitting her highest finish to date as well! 4th place was taken by Ricki Lee Casper of Houston, TX. Congratulations to all the ladies for their great shooting that earned them the spot in the main event on Sunday!
Tara Williams of Fort Worth made her way through Saturday with wins over Adena Sanchez (7-0), Kim Pierce (7-2), Michelle Cortez (7-5), and Monica Anderson (7-2). On Sunday, she continued her undefeated run and to take the hot seat with wins over Amanda Lampert (7-4) and Corina Campbell (7-3).
Corina Campbell of Dallas set up her highest finish to date by making her way through to the brackets, defeating on Saturday Teresa Garland (7-5), Lorna McEwan (7-5), and Jennifer Yo (7-2). She continued her run on Sunday winning against Robyn Petrosino (7-6), before being taking her first loss in the finals (3-7) against Tara for the hot seat.
For the 3rd place match, Corina was matched against Orietta Strickland of Dallas. Orietta jumped to a heavy lead at 6-2, but after a few unforced errors Corina was allowed back into the match. By continuing to capitalize on the opportunities given by Orietta, Corina was able to tie the match at 6 games to have one game decide who would move on to the finals. In the last game, both players traded safeties throughout the rack, but Corina missed a tough kick on the six to give Orietta ball in hand with four balls on the table. The only problem with the layout was that the 8-9 were tied up on the bottom rail. Orietta pocketed the 6 and played shape on the 7 to break out the trouble 8-9 layout, but when she executed the breakout, the 8-9 remained close together, forcing a combination on the 9-ball. She studied the combination for a minute, then took the shot. All the breath in the room was sucked in as the 9-ball rattled in the pocket but didn’t fall, leaving Corina an 8-9 combo for the match win. Congratulations to Orietta for a great match to watch and another great tournament finish!
With Tara and Corina in the finals match, it was a rematch of the hot seat for the tournament. Just like the hot seat match, both players traded racks early in the set until the match was set at 3-3. Once again, on the seventh game, Tara turned it on and didn’t look back. She finished out the set just as she had the first time they played with a final score of 7-3. Congratulations to Corina for her second place finish and reaching her highest finish to date on the tour!!! With this second win of 2016, Tara has seventeen tour wins and now holds the OB Cues Ladies Tour record for the most wins by a single player. Congratulations Tara on another great accomplishment!
(File Photo) Tara Williams
Thanks again to Legends for hosting all the lovely ladies for this second event of 2016, and to all our board members who do a fantastic job all year around.
Special recognition and thanks to OB Cues our main tournament sponsor. If you want to get serious about your game, check out OB Cues at www.obcues.com
Many thanks and love to all our families, fans, supporters—we greatly appreciate each and every one of you. Also to the many, many ladies/ players/friends who traveled from near and far; we loved seeing you all again and greatly appreciate you making the journey to play on the OB Cues Ladies Tour. We look forward to seeing everyone once again at Stop #3 – Click’s Billiards in San Antonio, Texas, May 21-22nd weekend.
Good Pool, Good Friends, Good Times – we are the OB Cues Ladies Tour!!!!!
Check us out at www.obcuestour.com or Facebook/obcuestour
Tournament Results & Payouts: $2000 monies added – 39 players
1st – Tara Williams – $775
2nd – Corina Campbell – $600
3rd – Orietta Strickland - $450
4th – Ricki Lee Casper - $340
5th/6th – Amanda Lampert, Robyn Petrosino - $170
7th/8th – Jennifer Yo, Angie Payne - $95
9th/12th –Jennifer Kraber, Monica Anderson, Michelle Cortez, Alicia Stanley - $45
Second Chance Tournament Results & Payouts: $100 monies added – 17 players
1st – Jillian Nickerson - $105
2nd –Teresa Garland - $81
3rd – Lorna McEwan - $54
4th – Yvonne Asher - $27
$30 Tough Luck Draw for drawing the reigning Tour Champ first round – Adena Sanchez
OB Cues Raffle Winners: Robyn Petrosino and Terry Petrosino